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Published by 

The Farm Journal 

Philadelphiei 




Young Pekin Duckling 



One of the Weber birds, a female, ten weeks old, saved for a breeder and with 
some of her fat trained off by running around the range. The parallelogram shape 
of body which is aimed at in breeding is here in evidence. The neck of this female 
duck is shorter than that of the average female. The necks of the males are as a 
rule longer than the necks of the females. 

This is one of several poses which a duck assumes. She is in repose. At feed- 
ing time, and when they are waddling, the necks of both ducks and drakes are 
elongated and the body is tipped upward, the whole poise being different from what 
this picture shows. Many birds are so fat at killing age that their bellies rest on the 
ground when they are standing in repose like this bird. When such birds walk, 
they have to make an effort to pull their bellies off the ground, and roll from side to 
side in their walk, like a sailor ashore. 

The above picture is a drawing by an artist, and not a photograph. Actual 
photographs of ducks and drakes are given on other pages of this book. 



Duck 

DOLLARS 



Successful Experience of the 

Weber Brothers, of Massachusetts, 
who have Amassed a Fortune 
raising Ducks and who are willing 
that Others should Profit by their 
Know^ledge and Methods 



Edited and Published by 

WILMER ATKINSON CO. 

PHILADELPHIA 

Price, 25 cents 



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Copyright, 191 1. 

WiLMER Atkinson Company. 



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©CI.A207579 



Contents 

Page 

Foreword ^ 

How the Webers Started n 

How to Start with Ducks 20 

Ducks for Business o^ 

Shelter and Ventilation 2< 

Care of Breeding Stock 28 

Sex, Pairing. Breeding ,- 

The Egg _^j 

Youngest Ducklings ,y 

Fattening -- 

Killing, Picking, Shipping g. 

Markets -, 

Question Box -n 

/9 




Under This Shelter Roof to Get Out of Sun and Rain 



List of Illustrations 

Page 

Young Pekin duckling 2 

Under this shelter roof to get out of sun and rain 5 

Here come the little ones out of the nursery for an airing 8 

Old Weber homestead 9 

Ducklings five weeks old in yards of second nursery house 12 

Feeding time for ducklings in the yards of the fattening sheds i6 

First nursery yards ip 

Exterior of brooder house 27 

Interior of brooder house 28 

On grass 30 

Food-mixing machine 32 

Drake, showing curl feather 36 

How to handle live birds 38 

Incubator cellar, showing machines which hatch the eggs into 

ducklings 42 

Where they lay their eggs 44 

Egg-testing lamp 45 

Fertile egg, seventh day 45 

Double brooder house. Yards on both sides. Walk through center 

of house 46 

Ducklings two weeks old 48 

Food and water troughs 50 

Thousands of youngsters 52 

Ducklings in the sun at midday 54 

Winter scene, brooder house 56 

Ready for feeding 58 

Meal time 60 

Fattening yards 61 

Knife used in picking 62 

Sticking knife 62 

Duck picker at work 68 

Ready for shipping 70 

Pen of ducklings on dirt run a week previous to killing 71 

Ducks in the first pen moved in this picture, causing the white 

streaks 72 

Parallelogram shape of body, depth of kool and plumpness of Weber 

ducklings are shown here 74 

Fattening shed and pens 76 

Shelter roof for ducks on the range 78 



Foreword 

" Duck Dollars " gives the reader a summary of what the 
Weber Brothers have accomplished in duck raising and how they 
do it. Here are given their methods, rules and secrets in full. 
This instruction has been commended by the highest authorities 
as the simplest and clearest exposition of the subject so far 
written. It is told in the Webers' own words, as first published 
in book form by the American Pekin Duck Company, and is here 
republished by arrangement with the owner of the copyright, hav- 
ing been brought down to date by revision, re-editing and re-writ- 
ing when necessary. 

We are glad that the Webers' experience has stood the test 
of a number of years, and that their phenomenal success is not 
merely an accident which might not be repeated year by year. 
We have no hesitation in saying that they conduct one of the most 
successful, financially, and well-managed duck farms in America; 
one whose methods can be successfully used no matter where 
ducks are raised. That they have been willing to disclose the 
secrets of their success that others may share them is creditable 
to them. 

This publication of this duck booklet will result in consider- 
able interest being centered in the Weber Brothers' farm at Wren- 
tham, Mass. Those who are interested should remember that 
these men work a full day on their farm and ought not to be 
bothered by trivial questions, or asked to confirm doubters. The 
whole story is told here and all questions answered. 

Before taking over this book the publishers spent more than 
a year in investigating the business, and Michael K. Boyer, the 
poultry editor of Farm Journal, says that there are many state- 
ments relating to the successes which could be made even stronger 
than they are here given. 

Minor points the beginner will find quickly cleared up by his 
own efforts after he starts. No attention will be paid to letters 
unless a self-addressed, stamped envelope is enclosed for reply. 
Questions, if asked, should be framed so that they may be 
answered "yes" or "no," or very briefly, and the inquirer should 
number his questions and keep a copy of them, so that replies can 
be made by number without repeating the question. Letters in 
which the writers describe their personal means, location, etc., 
should not be sent, as the Webers cannot be expected to give 
advice of that nature. The post-office address of the duck farm 
is: Weber Brothers, Wrentham, Mass. 



DUCK DOLLARS 



How the Webers Started 



The Weber farm for the breeding of white Pekin ducklings oi an 
advanced type consists of loo acres, and is located in Wrentham, Nor- 
folk county, Mass.. twenty-five miles south of Boston. It is now (1911) 
owned by two brothers, from forty to fifty years of age, named John and 
David. 

The work is divided between the two, and they have (September, 
191 1.) five hired men, not counting the expert duck pickers, five in 
number, who work by the piece. Seven hired men were employed up to 
the middle of August. John manages the care of the eggs and the 

incubators. David lodks after 
the growing stock, sale of the 
feathers, and directs the kill- 
ing, picking and shipping. 

Air. Weber, senior, his 
wife and the sons Henry. 
William, David and John 
came to America from Ger- 
many in 1868, and settled in 
Boston, where the family was 
increased by two girls. The 
father worked at the leather 
trade in Roxbury. In the old 
coiuitry. the family lived a 
rural life, and longed for it 
here. The father looked for 
farms and a chance to do 
farming. He moved to Dorchester, a suburb of Boston, beyond Rox- 
bury, and worked at gardening. It was not until 1883 that he realized 
a long-cherished hope by locating in Norfolk county as a real farmer, 
with fifty-five acres to till. The son William was then in Chicago at 
w-ork, David was in Boston in the leather business, Henry was also in 
Boston at work, leaving the youngest boy, John, at home with his sisters. 
The father first thought he could do best at truck farming. Later fifteen 
cows were kept and the milk sold to contractors. It was hard times, 
and the family managed to live but did not prosper. 

The start with poultry was in 1888. when the father investigated 
white Pekin ducks. It was an experiment, and all the family was appre- 
hensive of failure. In spite of the necessity of the most 
rigid economy. Mr. Weber understood the vital import- ^'^^^^^ Stock, 
ance of beginning with the best obtainable breeding ^" Ducks, 
stock. The ten ducks and two drakes, all white Pekins, ^"^^^ Drakes 
together with the incubator, cost $175. They were bought of a duck 
breeder who lived a few miles from their home. This was thought to 
be a bit of foUv. and the men folks had to '" catch .t " from their rela- 




Old Weber Homestead 



10 DUCK DOLLARS 

tives. They really felt quite ashamed. The incubator was transported 
at night, so that nobody would see it and laugh at the Webers. They hid 
it away in an old shack back of the house, and for months kept it covered 
with old grain sacks. If they failed, they did not want anybody to know 
it. The shack was so low that they had to crawl in to reach the incu- 
bator in the corner. 

They tried the incubator first with hens' eggs, putting in 600 at 
Christmas, 1888, and for a wonder, and much to their astonishment 
(for then they did not know the possibilities of an incu- 
Incubator bator), the thing worked; they got 280 chicks out of it, 

selling them in the spring at favorable prices. Inex- 
perienced as Mr. Weber and his son John were, and handicapped by the 
incubator being in unsuitable quarters, having a widely fluctuating tem- 
perature, they " got the hang " of the machine and made it go. Mean- 
time the ducks were laying all right, and so the next lot of eggs to go 
into the incubator was the duck eggs. They hatched out as well as the 
hens' eggs, and so, the first year, 1889, 600 ducks were raised and mar- 
keted. After hatching the ducklings, the next handicap came; from the 
brooders, which had been poorly constructed, and had ..wretched lamps. 
Leave the lamps lighted and burning well and they would smoke, or go 
out. Brooders were in their infancy then. 

The ducklings were taken to Boston twenty miles over the road and 
marketed after a personally-made bargain in which the buyer was met 
, ,. face to face. The first ducks weighed four pounds 

apiece at ten weeks of ag2 and sold for thirty cents a 
pound, a total of $1.20, a good price. (To-day their 
ducklings weigh six and one-half pounds each. In August, 191 1, they 
killed three for a special order which weighed twenty-four pounds. As 
nearly as the family could figure, it had cost only twenty cents to raise 
the duckling (no labor charge was reckoned then). Here was a remark- 
able profit staring this hard-working family in the face. If they could 
market 600 ducklings so profitably, why not more? The boys, William, 
Henry and David, were called home to help. The cows were sold off, 
for the milk farming was found to be an expensive way of employing 
one's time, when several hundred per cent, profit could be made on 
ducks. 

At the end of the first year, forty-two females only were kept for 
layers. The eggs from these were run through the incubator again and 
2,900 ducks marketed the second year. Early difficulties conquered, new 
troubles came up, but how could these discourage the family when a big 
profit awaited only the production of the ducklings? 

A new light was dawning in the brains of these experimenters, and 
it was eclipsing the bright chicken vision which they had read and heard 
_, . , so much about. During the first two years, when the 

incubator was not working on the duck eggs, it was 
used for chickens; 600 chickens were raised the first 
year and 1,500 the second. The chickens then were dropped, as the more 
profitable ducks needed the room and time, and all were cleaned out 
with the exception of a few to provide eggs for table use. 



DUCK DOLLARS ii 

The third, fourth and fifth years were periods of steady progress, 
more ducklings being marketed each year. 

The brother Henry died in 1892, and the father in 1894. The farm 
was left to the mother with the three remaining boys to run it. Con- 
fident of their powers, and determined to make themselves a success, 
they went forward on ducks with renewed energy. The farm was 
doubled in size by the purchase of adjoining land, old buildings were torn 
down and new ones erected. More incubators were bought. 

From 1892 to 1895, in the hard times, the prices for the ducks fell 
off. In that period the importance of improving the size and breeding 
qualities of the stock was driven home to the Webers. 
It was found that a duckling weighing more than the ^. "^ \ ^ 
best in the market, and looking better than the best m 
the market, got the top price from well-to-do buyers 
who have the best things for their tables, no matter whether times 
are good or bad. Ducks and drakes were selected for size and breed- 
ing qualities from the thousands raised, and only the very finest speci- 
mens kept to supply the eggs for the next crop. Before long the 
Webers had such fine stock that government department men, experi- 
ment station experts, poultry editors and artists, and poultry enthusiasts 
from everywhere visited the duck farm to see for themselves and tell 
about it. The Webers very cheerfully gave all the information to every- 
body. 

The first evidence that the Webers were prospering with ducks was 
shown in 1893, when the son William built a house opposite the old 
homestead with duck money (he had married two years 
before). David built for himself a house in 1900. He ^ 

married in 1904. John was married in 1902, and the fol- ^ 

lowing year moved into a new house. Aside from these three residences, 
duck buildings have been torn down and re-erected at a total cost of over 
$35,000. Just how much more duck profits have been saved an 1 banked is 
not known, but judging from the proportion which the average man's 
expenditures for home and living bears to what he puts away for a rainy 
day, the amount must be large. The farm and all the buildings are 
owned free and clear. The interest of the mother was bought out, and 
the three sons own everything. The residences are of modern con- 
struction, with hardwood floors, hot-water heating, hot and cold water 
and conveniences, including acetylene lighting for one of the residences 
from a private plant, and a water system of their own. The families 
have an automobile, they travel in their holidays, have a hunting camp 
down in Maine, and various fads and pastimes more or less expensive, 
and generally indulge themselves and their children like the average 
well-to-do American families. The mother lives with the son David, 
and the old farmhouse is now a boarding and lodging house for the help, 
run by a housekeeper. In May, 1911, the oldest brother, William, 
retired with a competency from the firm, selling out his interest and 
moving with his family to Illinois, where his wife's relatives liv^e. He is 
there breeding a few ducklings for pastime only. 

These successful men snlile now as they recall the time when they 



DUCK DOLLARS 13 

transported that incubator at night and hid it where nobody could see 
It and keep an amused watch over their experiment. If they did it, 
others can do it. They were unskilled when they started. They had 
no guide but their own experience. It took two or three Three 
failures of details to hammer the successful way into Failures 
them. Now they raise ducklings with as much ease and Necessary 
certainty as a sawmill turns out boards. They start the incubators and 
the ducks later get to market with no guessing. No matter how many 
thousands they ship to market, the marketmen always want more. There 
never has been a time when the duck market has been glutted, or the 
ducks slow sellers. The Webers seldom go to market, and have always 
sold to commission men and dealers, never direct; but there is no doubt 
they would have made more money if they had sold their product direct 
to consumers. They have not had time to work up such a selling system, 
but have always done well with what the commission men and dealers 
were willing to pay them. 

The large business has been done with the following building equip- 
ment : One house 25 x 260 feet; one 30 x 300; one 16 x 150; one 12 x 160; 
one 16x110; one 12x250; one 20x510; one 12x60; 
one 9x60; one 20x50; one 20x40; three 20x300, and ^o^^i"" 
three incubator houses. Total square feet of floor I^"^*^ 
space. 42.040. There is no building now more than ^""'tJ'ngs 
twelve years old, except one storehouse built fourteen years ago. Early 
buildings, poorly planned or inadequate, have been torn down to make 
room for the modern ones. The water plant consists of a gasoline 
I'Umping engine and a twelve-foot wheel on wood tower, a two-inch main 
pipe leading to a 14,000-gallon tank, one 2.000-gallon tank and over halt 
a mile of galvanized iron piping. (In 191 1 an addition to the water 
works was erected, and enough new piping laid to bring the total up to 
one and one-half miles.) 

The firm has sent annually for several years 40,000 to 45,000 duck- 
Imgs to market, the daily work of from five to nine pickers being 
necessary. 

Two gasoline engines have been in use at the farm, one to pump 
water, the other (of seven horse-power) to run the food mixer. The 
food-mixing machine saves two men's labor, and paid 
for itself in a few months after installation. For the ^^^t^ils 
late afternoon feed at the height of the season, 300 pail- ^^ ^^^ 
fuls are given to the birds. Grain, grit, shells, etc., are ^"S'l^ess 
bought by the carload. The teaming is done by a neighbor. Only 
one horse is kept for farm work. The farm has its own ice-pond, 
enough being cut to cool the refrigerating tanks. (No ice is used in 
shipping to Boston market.) During the time when most of the duck- 
lings are growing, two tons of feed a day are used. The only expensive 
food is rolled oats, of which only fifteen barrels a year are fed. The 
other feeds are the cheapest obtainable for any live stock. 

The farm ships a large quantity of the white feathers for which fifty 
cents a pound is obtained. The receipts for these feathers amount to 
about $100 a wee!:. 

There have been twenty-five incubators in use, each of 450 duck-egg 



14 DUCK DOLLARS 

capacity (600 chicken egg). There are a score or more of other incuba- 
tors which have been sent on by the manufacturers for trial. 

The investment in farm (100 acres) and duck buildings represented 

up to the summer of 191 1 an expenditure of $35,000, but on account of 

the advance in prices of lumber during the past ten 

* f years, this farm and these buildings could not be repro- 

usiness duced for that sum. The business can be said to have 

^ produced a net income of $20,000 a year on an invest- 

ment of $35,000 capital, not counting the labor of the two broth- 
ers as salaries. This is a dividend of fifty-seven (57) per cent., making 
the duck business, as the Webers do it, rank with the most successful 
enterprises. If we allow each of the two brothers a salary of $50 a week, 
or $2,500 a year, for the daily labor which they do, or $5,000 for the two, 
there is still left for net dividends each year $15,000, or a net dividend of 
forty-three (43) per cent, on the capital invested ($35,000). The ten- 
dency of the age has been to give youth educations in the professions 
as the best opportunity; but demonstrations such as the Webers are 
giving are changing this, and giving force to the advice, " back to the 
farm." To take the city of Boston, for example, the physicians whose 
income from practice is more than $10,000 a year do not exceed a score, 
and the same may be said of the lawyers, journalists or other professional 
men. The graduates of colleges and technical schools, as money-makers, 
are also not in the same class with these duck breeders. The growth 
in farm interest, farm instruction, government appropriations, etc., the 
past decade, is justified, and the movement has only begun. 

For many years the Webers have sent either to the New York or 
Boston marketmen, or both, from 40,000 to 45,000 ducklings a year, 
known as the Weber dry-picked Boston ducklings. 
Fifty Cents They are now shipping exclusively to two Boston mar- 
Profit per ketmen. 

Duckling On each duckling they plan to make, have made 

and are now making a net profit of fifty cents. The net 
income of the farm, therefore, for many years, has been rising $20,000 
a year. 

When grain was low they made that profit. When grain is high, 
as it is now, they get more for their ducklings, so the average net profit 
of fifty cents a duckling has remained the same. 

They started from nothing, poor, and have made themselves rich in 
this business. Out of their profits they have added to equipment from 
year to year as they have gone along. Their first equipment was 
meager; their present equipment is first-class. In the fall of 1909 a new 
water plant costing $1,500, consisting of a six horse-power gasoline 
engine, triple action pump, tank, piping, etc., was installed. In the sum- 
mer of this year (1911) $5,000 is being spent in equipment, including a 
new house 25 x 200 feet for growing young ducks and a new storehouse 
30 X 50 feet. Two gasoline engines and two feed mixers will be located 
in the basement of this storehouse. The first floor will be used for 
storing grain and the second floor for storing feathers. Four more 
breeding houses, each 15x20 feet, colony houses, are to be erected in 
the fall of 191 1, located in the meadow, for experimental purposes. 



DUCK DOLLARS 15 

By a process of evolution under their control by selection through 
a series of years, they have produced a market duckling which is much 
sought after. In 1909 they began tying up their duck- 
lings for shipment with red and white tape in which the led witn 
trade-mark " Weber Duck " is woven at intervals of two P^^ia ape 
inches. This gives each duckling, as displayed in market, an individu- 
ality, and prevents substitution. Buyers call for the tape-marked duck- 
ling accordingly, and prefer it to all others. 

The Webers m doubt could make more money by selling direct to 
buyers, as the best eggs, fowls, butter, etc., are sold, but they are satis- 
fied to sell to marketmen and wish to avoid further details. 

They formerly shipped to New York as well as Boston, but for the 
last two years they have sold only to Boston, and wholly to two firms. 
These firms contract to take the entire output. The 
Webers contract to furnish no specified amount, but to . Only to 
ship what they are able. There are many other firms of ' emen 
marketmen both in Boston and New York which are eager for tlie Weber 
ducklings, and the Webers could sell a number practically unlimited, 
but 45,000 ducklings a year have represented their capacity. For the 
season of 1912, they have reserved 1,000 laying ducks and are installing 
now (September, 1911,) a new large-sized incubator with a capacity of 
24,000 eggs. The smaller incubators are being taken out and stored. 
This will give them for 1912 an estimated output of 75,000 ducklings, or 
28,000 more than their best previous record. From this output they 
expect to make a profit for the year 1912 of $35,000 to $38,000, or about 
as much as the whole plant is worth. 

They claim for their strain more eggs per year and a higher fertility 
than any duck farm of which they have knowledge. For example, in 
1909, they say they marketed from 700 adult layers more ducklings than 
another breeder who saved 1,800 adult layers. The following two 
records, they claim, never have been equalled, namely: (i) In 1909 the 
marketing of 47,000 ducklings from 700 layers; and (2) in 1910 the 
marketing of 40,000 ducklings from 500 layers. In other words, each 
adult duck produces for them eighty-five ducklings in 
the ten months constituting the season. Their eggs ^^'^ ^*^ " 

have a high fertility, hatching ninety to ninety-five per ^cor 
cent. 

In August, 1910, they had seven men working on the farm besides 
themselves. The Webers count on one hired man to care for 6,000 
ducks. Other farms are said to require about double that number of 
hired help to produce equivalent results. 

The market price of ducks paid to the Webers has risen five cents 
a pound since 1906, or twenty-five per cent., which has more than paid 
for the advance in feed. 

The Webers receive at best wholesale from thirty-three to thirty-five 
cents a pound. They get most in January, February, March and April. 
Beginning about May 15th, the price drops, and from July on is from 
twenty cents a pound. The lowest price in recent years has been 
eighteen cents a pound. In the hard times of 1892 and 1893, the lowest- 



DUCK DOLLARS 17 

on-record price of eleven cents a pound was reached: but even at this 
price the farm made a profit. 

A neighbor, for a certain sum per year, calls at their farm daily for 
the killed packed ducklings and teams them to Walpole, whence they go 
by local express to Boston at one-half the rate charged by one of the 
interstate express companies from the Pondville or Wrentham station. 
The empties are returned free, whereas an interstate express company 
now charges for all empties. 

There are breeders of ducks now in every part of the United States 
and Canada, but they have been working with poor stock and largely by 
guesswork. Most of them are breedmg the common, or 
puddle ducks, of the lightweight ducks of colored plu- ^^^ ^^^ 
mage, ail of inferior size and fed on lake or sea-shore ^" ^'^'^ 
fish until the flesh tastes more or less fishy. 

The Weber strain of Pekins is different from the common ducks. 
Their birds are what they have made famous as the cross-bred, white- 
feathered Boston ducklings, fattened on grain and beef scraps, and 
weighing five to six pounds when marketed at ten weeks of age. 

The plain facts about modern duck raising have never been told to 
the whole people. There have been writings about the subject by the 
workers in it, but they have talked, in a great degree, to themselves,' 
in an obscure way, discussing methods, and not " talking up the goods " 
to the public as they rightfully can be talked up. 

Perhaps the most surprising point, to the average reader, is that the 
Weber ducks are raised without water. (Swimming water, we mean: 
they are great drinkers.") 

A farm which is good for nothing from the old-fashioned farmer's, 
standpoint is just the place for ducks. Their manure will make the most 
sterile fields productive enough for the green stufif and vegetables that 
may be grown. The 191 1 crops on the Weber farm helped by the duck 
manure were a sight, the millet being three feet high and the corn from 
fifteen to sixteen feet high. The crops of mangels and carrots were extra- 
ordinary. 

The Weber ducklings are not raised as a small breeder raises 
chicken. An incubator is the device which multiplies the money-making 
possibilities. In the first place, these modern ducks will not reproduce 
their young by nest-building and setting. They have been bred to lay 
eggs and not to sit on thein. If you wish to start small and without an 
incubator, you have got to take a common, old-fashioned hen and set 
her on the duck eggs to hatch them out. 

On account of the incubators the Webers save great expense by 
carrying only comparatively few breeding birds from one year to the 
next. From each duck they get eggs enough to raise 
four-score ducklings that year. A duck reproducing at Incubators 
that rate must be good to start, and must have intelli- Necessary 
gent care and feed. 

Ducklings are on the Webers' hands only ten weeks. Then they 
vanish to market and the Webers get the money for them, and their room 
also. This goes on day after day, raising, killing, shipping, the markets 



i8 DUCK DOLLARS 

taking them all the time, as they do chickens. Prices for ducklings are 
highest in the East in April and May. It is not necessary to get these 
high prices all the year to make the business a success. The Webers 
have taken the markets as they have come every month of the year, 
knowing all the while they were making a good profit, even when prices 
were at times one-half to one-third lower than at others. 

The Webers have found by experience the cost of raising ducklings 
(feed and labor, including expert pickers making from $20 to $30 a 
week) to be from six to ten cents a pound, depending on the fluctuating 
prices of grain. Others say the same, including the government reports 
from experimenters. 

It costs, therefore, from thirty to sixty cents to get the duckling up 
to the market and into the market. The selling price is fifty cents more 
than this. For many years after learning the business by hard knocks, 
they have figured confidently on making half-a-dollar profit on every 
duckling, — that is what actually happens. 

Ducks have no lice or other vermin. They are not bothered by 

hawks. They have no diseases. Hawks are an ever- 

uc s ave present pest in many parts of our country. They will 

not touch the youngest duckling. By no disease, we 

do not wish to give the impression that ducks resist all ill-treatment. 

Fed improperly they will have diarrhoea. Kept in the sun constantly 

when little and given no shade they will be sunstruck. Allowed to 

become crowded and panic-stricken, they will get lame and otherwise 

injured. Starved, they will die like any animal. But these matters 

are absolutely under the control of the breeder, with very simple and 

sure arrangements. There will be no losses from what is commonly 

known as disease. No medicine or pills or drugs of any kind are of 

any use in the duck business. 

The buildings necessary for the duck breeder vary with the climate. 
A good way to start is to put your incubator in the cellar of your house, 
or in a room, and your ducks in one small building, and enlarge as you 
get ahead. 

The beautiful white feathers picked from the ducklings before mar- 
keting are worth good money, forty-five to fifty cents a pound. Every 
twelve ducks will give a pound. Generally this revenue will pay for a 
good part of the picking. The demand for these beautiful white feathers 
is active and eager. A buyer came from New Jersey a few months ago 
and offered to contract for the entire output of the Webers for 1912. 
They are now shipping the feathers to buyers in four different cities. 
The feathers are put up in bales weighing about 100 pounds, and are 
shipped by freight. 

The following food is given : 

Rolled oats. Beef scraps. 

■yy. J Bread-crumbs. Green stuff. 

They Eat ^'■^"- Vegetables. 

Corn-meal. Grit. 

Flour (low grade). Ground oyster-shells. 

The rolled oats cost the Webers $3.25 to $5 a barrel (180 pounds). 



DUCK DOLLARS 



19 



This is the most expensive item in the ration. They are fed only to 
the youngest ducklings and to them only for a brief period. 

The bread-crumbs are made from stale bread given away (or sold 
for little) by bakers. Bought in quantities it costs only $25 a ton. 

The bran (also called shorts) is the outside shell or wrapper of 
wheat. It costs only $20 a ton, but in the West near the flour mills it is 
much cheaper. 

The corn-meal is common yellow Indian meal which has been 
ground (not cracked). It costs from $1 to $1.25 per 100 pounds in the 
East; in the West it is cheaper. 

The low-grade flour costs $28 a ton in the East — cheaper in the 
West. 

The beef scraps cost $2.50 per 100 pounds. They form a small per 
cent, of the ration, at a certain time. 

By green stuff is meant anything growing, like common grass, oats, 
clover, rye, millet, etc. 

The vegetables are cheap on the average farm, and are a fine duck 
food. Turnips and carrots are easily raised and turned into duck meat. 

The grit may be ordinary sand or gravel for a certain period in the 
life of the ducks, after which the cheapest granite grit is bought. Fancy 
grits costing as much or more than grain are not used. 

The ground oyster-shells essential to the egg formation are the 
widely-known common and cheap kind. 

The part which water plays according to certain rules in duck rais- 
ing is an important one. It adds volume to the feed and it makes the 
feed cost less because it makes the same amount of feed more filling. 




First Nursery Yards 



The little ones are seen poking in the dirt and running around enjoying 
themselves. Wire netting eighteen inches high separates each pen. The birds 
do not fly at any age, nor jump from one pen to another over the netting. 



20 DUCK DOLLARS 

Ducklings arc given a vast amount of water to drink between meals, 
also, and this fattens them. Water fattens ducks more than any other 
poultry — they absorb a lot of it in the course of a day. 

The Webers say they do not know of anything raised on such a 
cheap and simple ration as ducks, as above described. No expensive 
grains are needed. That is where the profits come in. The producing 
cost is low but the selling price is high. Even when sold to middle- 
men, the price is from three to five times the cost of the feed. 



How to Start with Ducks 



Those who, after reading this account, may wish to start breeding 
ducks should bear in mind the following: The best way is to buy the 
eggs. A trio of two ducks and a drake, or of more ducks and drakes, 
may be purchased; but it should be borne in mind that ducks cannot 
stand much transportation. If you live within twenty-five miles of a 
duck farm, so that you can go there yourself and take home in your 
wagon a trio or more, that- is feasible; but if you are situated so that 
the ducks and drakes will have to be shipped you by express, better go 
slow, for live ducks, as a rule, cannot stand long railroad journeys. They 
become alarmed, lose appetite, refuse to eat or drink, and may die in 
transit, or shortly after arrival. It is not possible to 
Ducks Hard ^j^j^ ^j^^^^^^ ^^,j^j^ ^^^, j^gj-ee of safety from the Atlantic 
to Ship ^^ ^j^^ Pacific states. They will be dead on arrival, 

or will die shortly after. The express companies will not pay for such 
deaths or disablements. Shipments by express of live stock are made 
only at owner's risk. The express companies will settle only for losses 
of ducks caused by wrecks, or something of that nature. Duck shippers 
will not take the risk of guaranteeing safe delivery, as the birds are out of 
their control when receipted for by the express company. The result is. 
that in the case of deaths in transit, the loss has to be borne by the pur- 
chaser, often to his intense disappointment and sometimes resentment. 
The birds have cost him generally at least $2 apiece, and sometimes as 
high as $6 apiece, and the loss comes hard, especially as the buyer is in 
no way to blame, except, perhaps, for taking the risk. So we advise 
that you avoid this risk and disappointment by buying duck eggs. 

A start with duck eggs is a different matter, there being a minimum 
of risk. Eggs for hatching are being shipped all over 
^^f*"* the United States and Canada daily. The Webers have 

witn t^ggs shipped their duck eggs as far as Germany with success. 

Of course the beginner cannot expect to go into the markets of his 
city and town and buy duck eggs fit for hatching. Generally in the 
markets there are found only duck eggs which have been rejected from 
the incubators because of the very lack of that fertility which the begin- 
ner wants. Also there are eggs found in the markets laid by ducks with 
which no drakes have run. The beginner must buy of a duck breeder 
only those eggs which are sold for the special purpose of incubation. 



DUCK DOLLARS 21 

either by a sitting hen or by an artificial incubator. Orders for such 
fertilized eggs are taken in advance from October on, but they cannot 
be delivered until about the first of February, because duck eggs are not 
fertile when laid in November and December. The 
buyer, if he wishes to do business the following spring, 
should place his order for eggs beginning October ist. „ ., 
His order will be placed on file by the duck breeder and 
the eggs shipped when ready from February ist on. If the beginner 
waits until January to June before placing his order for eggs, he will get 
them delivered right away if the breeder has them for sale. It is a fact, 
however, that the number of duck eggs for hatching offered each year 
is comparatively small, and many late buyers are disappointed. If you 
read this for the first time in July or August, better not 
start at ducks until the following spring, when the eggs 
will be at their highest fertility. Use up the fall months ^ 
in building and getting ready. 

Duck eggs for hatching are shipped by express after careful packing 
in a carton or box made for this purpose. The package is stamped 
" Handle with care. Keep from freezing." It is the experience of egg 
shippers that, as a rule, they are handled with care and are kept from 
freezing, and the traffic is large and successful. The express cars are 
heated, and the eggs have no chance to freeze there. A temperature of 
from fifteen degrees to thirty-two degrees Fahrenheit Look out 
would have no effect on the eggs in their well-packed They Don't 
container, in any event, unless continued for two or three Freeze 
days. The only danger is, that an ignorant or careless expressman at 
destination, with the mercury i.t or below zero to fifteen degrees above, 
would leave them on the depot platform for twenty-four to thirty-six 
hours. This must be avoided. A good way, after you have ordered 
the eggs, and after you have been notified by the shipper of the date 
of shipment, is to go to your express agent and tell him that you 
have some duck eggs coming about such and such a time. Ask him 
to take them inside his office when they arrive, and tell him why. 
Ask him to notify you on arrival by telephone, and then you go your- 
self to the depot and get your eggs. Or, if you live in a city or 
town where the express company has a wagon delivery, ask him 
to get them to you as soon as possible after the train 
is in, and offer to pay him a little extra for such prompt . 

service. Remember, you cannot recover from the 
express company for freezing or breakage. All such risk is borne by 
you. Another point : Suppose after putting the eggs through your 
incubator, or under your sitting hen, you hatch out only a few, or have 
some other misadventure with them, you may feel that it is not your 
fault, and may try to collect damages of the egg shipper, but no egg 
shipper is legally bound to pay such a claim. It is a risk incidental to 
the business, which you must take. It may be the fault of your incu- 
bator, the lamp, ventilation, or of yourself or hired man, or a 
dozen other causes. It is true, also, that it may be the fault of the 
eggs, that they were not laid by good, rugged stock, and not properly fer- 



22 DUCK DOLLARS 

tilizcd, gathered and shipped, but your remedy is not at 
"^ ^ the end, but at the beginning. Buy the eggs only of 

epu ab e reputable breeders of skill and ability who make it their 

business to please, and who consequently have done and 
are doing a large business. No absolute guarantee as to how eggs will 
hatch can be given. The best guide is the experience of an honest 
. breeder, and from such a man you should buy the eggs, 

^*^ ' . ^ and rely in confidence on what he tells you, — and beyond 

^ ' that, look to yourself, the help you hire, and the appli- 

ances you buy. 

There are many makes of incubators on the market, each fully 
described in the catalogue of the maker. The Webers have used two 
types, one an old pattern not advertised now; the other more modern, 
which is advertised. They like the old type as well as the new. They 
have tried many. They are to try a new large-sized incubator of 24,000 
egg capacity beginning with 1912. They do not think that their success 
with ducks is dependent on any one type of incubator. 
William Weber, the oldest brother, who ran all the incu- 
bators while connected with the firm, is an expert of 
experts in this line, and no doubt could master any incubators set before 
him, and turn out the thousands of ducklings just the same. Both the 
other brothers are also expert incubator operators. So do not write 
the Webers asking them to recommend an incubator 
manufacturer. It should be remembered by beginners 
that an incubator is largely a tool, and the work it turns 
out depends considerably on whose hands it is in. The 
choice of an incubator may be made intelligently by comparison of cata- 
logues and the machines themselves. 

In buying duck eggs, remember that you buy the breeder's intelli- 
gence and skill as well as the eggs. You cannot raise the best type of 
Pekin ducks unless the best type of Pekin ducks laid the eggs. The 
ducks which you see on the farm you visit will be reproduced in the 
eggs which you buy from that farm. The germ of the 
ducks you want must be in the eggs or you cannot pro- 
duce them. Do not think that by superior management 
of an incubator or brooder you can produce an improved strain of 
ducks. By selection of the best ducks themselves, from those you raise, 
and in that way only, is advancement possible. A setting of duck eggs, 
twelve in number, costs as high as $5, sometimes higher, and more eggs 
at the same rate. 

Ducks for Business 

The white Pekin is the queen of all ducks. This breed was brought 

to America from China, where they are raised now, and highly esteemed. 

The first specimens of Pekins were imported fifty years 

^ '" '^ ago. In this comparatively short period, a great deal 

^ has been done to improve the size and breeding qualities 

of this variety. 

Other varieties of tame ducks are the white Aylesbury, Indian 



DUCK DOLLARS 23 

Runner, white Muscovy, colored Muscovy, colored Rouen, black East 
India, black Cayuga, blue Swedish, Crested White, gray Call, white Call. 
Everything written in this book applies to the white Pekin strain 
which we have developed. These teachings do not apply to the other 
above-named varieties. Commercially, we believe in the Pekin only. The 
other varieties may be bred for show-room or for amusement, but as 
to their money-making qualities we are in doubt. We have no doubts 
as to our Pekins. They are easily raised in great numbers, and are in 
active demand in the markets and sold at a large profit. 

America leads in the development of the Pekin. The duck breeders 
in England are few and far between. They have experi- 
mented most with the Aylesburys. The Pekins mature 
more quickly than the Aylesburys and their feathers 
come out more easily when picking. The Indian Runner duck is smaller 
than the Pekin and has dark pin-feathers. It is not so salable as the 
Pekin; side by side in the markets the Pekin will beat it in looks, size 
and price. The Indian Runner is a good layer, but this 
does not offset the other points mentioned. Muscovy 
ducks are fighters and hard to handle. Gray and white 
Call ducks are bantams bred for the show-room, but never for profit. 
The black East India is another bantam variety, seldom weighing more 
than two pounds. The other above-named varieties are rare. 

In disposition, as well as size, quick maturity and fecundity, the 
Pekin is exceptional. Pekins do not quarrel. They are easily driven 
and handled. t> i,- 

Duck raising should be entered into not for amuse- 
ment or for a pastime, but to make money. It is worth ^ 

all of one's time and attention and will richly reward the earnest, method- 
ical worker. We have tried to make these instructions so simple and 
plain that there can be no question as to procedure. 

Perhaps the most surprising point, to the average reader, is that 
our ducks are raised without water. Don't think you 
must have a pond or brook on your place. Ducks with- 

Our ducks have web feet, but we have bred out of out Water 
them the desire to swim and bathe. The advantages of 
no swimming water were quickly made manifest to us. We know the 
methods and flocks of a few duck breeders who use water, and we never 
could find that the ducks were better in any way. 

Perhaps you have a brook or pond. A brook is handy, perhaps, in 
that it will reduce the work of watering. But the ducks will not get any 
larger or fatter because of it. They will drink from a brook or pond, 
thereby lessening the work of their caretaker. 

Anybody raising ducks with a pond on his place will find that some 
ducks will lay eggs in the water. Unless the water is shallow, and the 
eggs easily reached, this will be a source of annoyance 
and loss. As ducks lay at night, or early in the morn- ^"^ ^ 
ing, this trouble can be overcome by shutting the birds 
up at night and not letting them into the water until about 9 a.m. 

If you have a spring or brook with a fall so that water can be 
diverted and made to run through the duck house or houses, that may 
be worth trying. 



24 DUCK DOLLARS 

Most beginners without instruction think that ducks must have 
swimming water to thrive and, lacking a pond or brook, will dig a rain- 
hole without inlet or outlet. This quickly gets muddy and slimy and 
becomes an abomination, — a menace to both ducks and owner. 

We have heard of duck raisers on the coast of Delaware, who have 
had trouble in the following way : The tides would force the stagnant 
marsh water back into the duck ranges, and when the 
eware o ducks got into this brackish water it was bad for them. 

Some actually would be poisoned and die. Look out for 
this stagnant, foul-smelling marsh water if you breed ducks on the sea- 
coast. 

The rice-fields of the South are ideal for ducks. They will pick up 
plenty of free nourishment there. Ducks are good, also, 
to go over harvest fields to pick up the left-behind 

_, grain. This is a suggestion for large farmers who breed 

Gleaners , , 

ducks. 

The cost of from six to ten cents a pound to bring a duckling to 

killing age, according to the location of the plant and 

. according to the prices of grain, includes labor as well 

as food. Figuring food alone, live cents a pound would 

cover the cost. 

Of course a duckling does not eat so much when it is small and 
newly hatched as it does when it has reached the killing age. If you 
keep a duck from killing age on for breeding, it will cost you about 
twenty-five cents a month in feed and labor to carry the duck. This is 
why good breeding stock sells for much higher prices than the killed 
ducklings. 

The labor charge is cut down in proportion to the increase in the 
number of ducks kept. The care of 30,000 ducks may be divided among 
six men. 

Bearing in mind what we have said about cost, it may be estimated 
accurately that a duckling of market age, weighing five pounds to six 
pounds, will cost to produce from thirty to sixty cents. 

The w^holesale selling price is at least twelve cents a pound, depend- 
ing on the location of the market and the season. Eleven cents is the 
..^, , . lowest we have ever known it here, and thirty cents the 

.„ . highest. For many years twentv cents has been the 

Prices ... 

mminium. This means that each duck will be sold 

for from sixty cents to $1.50. A duck which has cost the high price to 

produce will sell for the high market price; for this is the way the 

market runs. 

In speaking of these profits, we do not estimate the sale of breeding 

stock. If you keep what you raise until they are of breeding age. and 

then sell them to your neighbors, or to anybody, by advertising or exhi- 

bition, you will make more. Nor do we take account of 

' ^ the sale of duck eggs. Duck eggs are salable on account 

^^ 01 their large size and good cooking qualities, and many 

are in the markets; but the big duck raiser has a better use for most 

of his eggs than the table — he has his incubator in mind — he wants 

them for seed. 



DUCK DOLLARS 



Shelter and Ventilation 

Until one gets a large plant in operation, buildings for ducks are a 
secondary matter. The average home place with a little land is big 
enough to make a start. Quite a business in ducks can be done on 
limited ground. 

We know of duck plants where double our number of breeders are 
kept producing less than half the number of ducklings we market yearly. 
We produce from sixty to seventy-five or more duck- 
lings to each breeding duck a year, while the breeders xpensive 
above referred to produce only about thirty. We relate B"'W»ogs not 
this as proof of what a strain of Pekins will do when Necessary to 

Start 
it has been built up by selection, and attention to the 

details of the breeding. It is a waste of energy, time and money to 
keep 1,500 birds producing eggs when half that number will do as well. 

Every house has a cellar or back room where the first incubator may 
be run. The few breeding ducks may be housed in the woodshed or 
small building or shack of any kind. Not even wire netting eighteen 
inches or two feet wide is needed to confine them; boards fifteen inches 
wide will serve. Use carriage house, barn or outhouse. The mature 
breeders can stand any amount of exposure in our winter, but they should 
have the chance of getting in under where it is dry, and 
where they can squat on dry leaves or other bedding so ^'^^ ^^ * 
as to keep their feet warm. If a freezing night comes ^ ^^^ 

and you have your breeding ducks in a very cold shelter, better get them 
into the barn or other fairly warm place where their eggs will not freeze. 

After April, in the North, they can safely lay anywhere without 
danger of frozen eggs. 

If you are in the South, or any state where the climate is warmer 
than ours, you should handle your ducks, as far as shelter is concerned, 
as you observe poultry raisers do whom you know. Understand, the 
pictures and descriptions of buildings which you see in this book apply 
to cold New England. Duck breeders here put up expensive, substantial 
buildings, some with hot- water heaters, burning coal; and the fact that 
they can do this, covering their farms with such structures, is proof of 
a substantial kind that there is money in the duck business. 

When the youngest ducklings come out of your incubator, they 
need a brooder, or foster-mother wood.en device. If there is anybody 
who reads this book who does not know what a brooder 
is, the picture of it in the catalogue of the manufacturer ^^^ ^'"^ ^^^ 
will tell, and the machine, with the directions that go Necessary 
with it, will be understood at once. Brooders are used both indoors and 
outdoors. An outdoor brooder, however, should not be put out in very 
cold weather, just because it is labeled for outdoors. Protect it all you 
can in such weather by putting it in a shed or under cover somewhere. 

The little ones are managed in a small portable brooder in the same 
manner as described in this book under the head of " Youngest Duck- 



26 DUCK DOLLARS 

lings." What is written there appHes to your little 
How to ones, only we describe them there as having a big house 

Handle over their heads, whereas your brooder is a small house 

in itself. 

Progress in the duck business means buildings. There are single 

brooder houses, double brooder houses, cold houses, fattening sheds, 

incubator cellar, killing and shipping house, grain storehouse, and so on. 

Ducks should always be on the ground. Do not have floors in 

any duck houses. 

The ordinary brooder house is built with an uneven double roof (not 

single roof). That is, the back roof is half as long as the front roof. 

It is high at the back to give walking space for the 

e roc er attendant; this form of construction gives head room 

House there. Erect the house so that the long side of roof 

will face the sun, that is, the south. 

For a house less than 150 feet long (sixteen feet wide) use lumber 
of the following dimensions : Studs two by three inches, plates two by 
four, sills two by six, rafters two by five, collar beams one by six. For 
a house thirty feet wide and more than 150 feet long 
**.^ ** use studs two by four, sills three by five, rafters two by 

six, collar beams one by six, and for plates two two-by- 
fours spiked together. In a house thirty feet wide or over use collar 
beams two by five. A house of this width should have posts to hold 
up the roof. 

Lay the sills of all houses on posts, or brick or stone piers. Set 
the piers about five feet apart. 

In houses built with even double roof, the walk is down the middle 
under the ridge-pole, and not down the back. Such a house has pens on 
each side of the walk. 

Good, rubstantial duck buildings can be erected cheaply provided 

roofing paper be used instead of shingles. There is a great difference 

in roofing papers, however. Many have to be painted 

r^. , ^ , frequently in order to keep them efficient, and the cost 
Tight Roof f ' . \ ^ .,, , , f , . .„' 

of this pamt, with labor of applymg, will soon amount 

to more than if shingles had been used at first. 

The pens in the nursery house should not be more than three feet 
wide. Some recommend that they be four, five or even six feet wide. 
Not more than fifty little ducklings should be put into 
^ a pen, and fifty will go into a three-foot pen all right. 
Those who have built wider pens have found it not wise 
to put more than fifty into the pen. They will crowd together anyway, 
and more than fifty in a bunch may make trouble by walking over one 
another. The stronger ones will tramp over the weaker ones and hurt 
them. No lanterns are used in the nursery at night to keep the duck- 
lings from crowding, because the little ones are under the brooder 
covers, shut in the darkness, where the lantern light could not penetrate 
anyway. 

In a house with pens only three feet wide, the ducklings should, of 
course, not be kept longer than three weeks. After that age they should 
be transferred to more roomy quarters. 



DUCK DOLLARS 



27 




Exterior of Brooder House 

The hot-water heater (coal for fuel) is in that end of the house nearest the 
eye. The brick chimney leads straight up from the heater pit. Note the 
ventilators -at regular intervals in the roof. Never build a tight house for ducks, 
but always provide for ventilation. 

The small structure in the foreground is a simple shelter for ducks outdoors 
to protect them from the sun and the rain. The posts are three feet high. The 
ducks know enough to go under the shade without urging, whenever their well- 
being demands that they should. 



Ducks need fresh air, and in building the houses 



Fresh Air 



provision should be made for ventilation. Tight houses 

are not to be built. Necessary 

If you have a tight house full of ducks, and keep them there three 
or four days and nights in bad weather, the inside of the house will grow 
very warm-, and ammonia from the manure will rise, making your own 
eyes and the eyes of the ducks smart. 

Every 100-foot house should have two ventilators through the roof, 
and should also have windows at the back to be opened when needed. 
These windows should be managed according to the weather. 

Early in the morning, when you go into a house filled with ducks, 
you will see the hot air and ammonia fumes going ofif from the venti- 
lators. 

If no provision whatever is made for ventilation, and a large num- 
ber of ducks are kept in a house, the air will get so bad 
that some ducks will actually go blind from the irrita- 
tion of their eyes by the ammonia rising from the 
manure. 



Blindness 

from 

Ammonia 



28 



DUCK DOLLARS 



When the weather in the spring begins to get warmer so that there 
is no danger of the eggs freezing, take out the windows entirely, so that 
the air will circulate freely from that time on, all through 
the house. Nail laths or wire netting over the windows 
to prevent the ducks from getting out at night, and also 
to prevent cats and other animals from getting in. You must manage the 
windows so that the eggs will not freeze. Be governed by the time of 
vear and the weather. 



Open the 
Windows 



Care of Breeding Stock 

Ducks and drakes, which after the first year you save for breeding 
stock, should be handled as this chapter advises. If in winter, house 
them. 

Thirty head should be put in each pen : twenty-five ducks and five 
drakes. Allow ten square feet for each bird. That is to say. the thirty 




Interior of Brooder House 

Tliis is tlie nursery for youngest duckliiij,'s. The pens are three feet wide. 
Cross boards are set half way in tlie pens, as pictured, so that the little ones will 
not wander far from the hover. The board tops of the hovers are seen. (The milk 
can is on top of one section.) The hot-water pipes are directly underneath the 
board tops. The pipes (bent) are for the purpose of carrying water from a central 
pressure supply, so as to save labor when filling the small drinking fountains used 
lor the youngest birds. 

The timbering of the brooder house is well illustrated in this picture. As shown, 
the roof is double uneven, with the long side facing the sunny, or south side, and the 
narrow roof facing the north. .\ house of this construction is made any length, to 
suit the number of ducklings which it is desired to handle. 



DUCK DOLLARS 29 

birds should have a space of 300 square feet. A pen 
containing 300 square feet would be twenty feet by fif- 'l p "^ 

teen feet in size, or ten feet by thirty feet. This is the 
space inside the house. Each outside yard for a pen of that inside size 
should have from 1,300 to 2,000 square feet. If the pen is fifteen feet wide, 
then outside the house it should be close to 130 feet long. An outside 
yard ten feet wide and twenty feet long is not long enough. Yards for 
thirty head should be fifteen feet wide and ninety feet long. 

The pens are separated from each other by wire netting which should 
be two feet wide. Eighteen inches is not wide enough for these big 
ducks, especially when snow covers the ground. The proper size of 
wire netting is No. 19, two-inch mesh or three-inch mesh. The next 
finer size of wire. No. 20, is not stifif enough. 

In building these outside pens with the twenty-four-inch wire netting, 
drive the wood stakes first, then tack the wire netting on with galvanized 
iron staples. Do not drive the staples clear home. Drive 
them down three-quarters of the way so that when you 
wish you can pull out these staples with a cotton hook. 
A very handy tool in handling the wire netting and staples is a hammer 
and staple puller combined. Do not nail the wire netting tight to the 
stakes and later pull up stakes and wire netting together and roll them 
into a bale. You will find this awkward and clumsy work. A roll of 
wire netting and stakes, ninety feet long, is hard to manage. The staples 
should be pulled out and saved and the netting rolled up separately. The 
stakes should be loosened with a sledge hammer and pulled up and out 
of the way. This is done before you plow up or spade up the yards 
previously to sowing them down to rye or other green stufT. 

A good time in northern latitudes to plow up the yards is in 
August and the rye is then sown. In many places in the West winter 
wheat should be sown instead of rye. In the South 
wheat should be sown. Wheat should also be sown in ^^ "^ 

California. In this matter of sowing green stufif you will 
be guided by what you see around you in your state. 

Inside this house where the breeders are kept use board partitions 
two feet high, not wire partitions. These board partitions will prevent 
the wind from blowing in drafts. 

Either wooden troughs or wooden pails may be used for giving the 
birds water in and out of this house. A galvanized iron pail specially 
made so as to have a wide base is the best. The ducks 
would tip over the ordinary pail whose base is narrower ' ° 

than its top. The ducks do not climb into the pails. " 

They do not try to take a bath. They use them only to drink from. 
When giving them water, always provide a vessel deep 
enough so that the water will reach above the nostrils ^^ ^ 
and give the birds an opportunity to clean out their '' "^ 
nostrils in the water. Necessary 

Two food boards are enough for a pen of thirty head, each board 
being five feet long and twelve inches wide, with a three-inch strip nailed 
around the edges. Two gallons of water should be given at a time for a 
pen holding thirty birds. 



30 



DUCK DOLLARS 




On Grass 



When the duckHngs are crowded out of the nurseries by the on-coming" 
hatchings, they are put out on the range. If they are kept for breeders, they 
are allowed to stay on the grass. Ducklings to be killed, however, are taken off 
the grass two weeks before killing time and placed on dirt. If allowed to stay on 
the grass, their flesh will be yellow, not white, as it should be, and as the markets 
demand. 

On meadow land, ducks of the size and age shown above have a fine time 
grubbing for worms. They do not scratch the surface like a hen, but get down 
under the dirt with their bills and grub. They eat worms greedily, as many as 
they can stuff into themselves all day long, until the food passage is distended to 
large size. This diet of worms cuts down the regular feeding ration and has a good 
effect on the breeding qualities of the stock, not only in producing more eggs, but 
influencing the fertility to a remarkable degree. 



DUCK DOLLARS 3i 

Ducks saved for breeders are fed on the same food which they had 
while growing to killing age, but instead of being on a dirt range they 
should be on a grass range. 

This food is given to them twice a day, morning and evening. 
They should be watered more often during the day. This water is an 
important factor in their growing. They can be watered pj^^^^y ^j 
five times a day in addition to the two times at which ^^^^j. 
they feed. The value of water is strikingly seen in the 
case of strawberries. By giving plenty of water to his berries the straw- 
berry grower can double the size of his berries. 

This food for the birds saved for breeders is as follows (by meas- 
ure) : Vegetables, ten parts; green stuff (or cut dried clover), ten parts; 
beef scraps, ten parts; low-grade flour, twenty parts; ^^^ Feeding 
bran, twenty parts; corn-meal, thirty parts. In addition, Pqj.jj^^|^ 
grit and shells and a pinch of salt should be put in. 
About one per cent, of grit is enough, also one per cent, of sheUs. For 
salt, use the common fine table salt. Do not use the coarse salt such as 
is used in making ice-cream. That is too coarse. Nearly all animals 
need salt to keep them in a healthy condition. It will improve their appe- 
tites and keep their blood in good order. 

About once a week put into the ration one per cent, of ground 
charcoal. The object of this charcoal is to sweeten and ^^^^^.^^^1 
clean the stomach of the bird. It corrects any acidity 
in the stomach. 

The food ingredients above are mixed up dry first so as to get them 
thoroughlv stirred up, then water should be added until the mixture 
becomes lumpy but not sloppy. Test it by picking up a handful. It 
should be lumpy and crumble, but should not stick to the hands. If it 
sticks to the hands, it has too much water in it. Measure the 

Use one of your food pails to measure the various 
ingredients. 

Feed the mixture as soon as you have it mixed. In the winter 
time, to save labor in the morning, you can mix at night and have it all 
ready to feed in the morning. 

A pen of thirty ducks should eat about a pailful of this at each 
feeding. 

When ducks are laying well, they should be given a quart of whole 
corn at noon. We mean that each pen of thirty ducks should have a 
quart of whole corn. They like it and begin to ask for it about noontime, 
each day. The object of this whole corn is to stimulate 
and fortify the system. Cut open a duck s egg after it ^^^^ 
has been germinating two weeks and you see the large 
amount of blood in it. Draining this out of the duck at the rate of one 
egg a day is quite a strain on her system, and the corn is fed especially 
to strengthen the bird. 

Clean food is essential. Do not let the food boards get dirty. When 
the ducks are through feeding turn the food boards over, face down, so 
as to keep them clean. 

It is S9«d that you can get hens and pigeons too fat to lay, but this 



32 



DUCK DOLLARS 




Food-Mixing Machine 

This is really a machine used by bakers for mixing dough, but it is just what is 
wanted for mixing the rations for ducks. This size cost ^320, but it saves the labor 
of two men. There is a smaller size sold at half that price. The mixer shown in 
above picture is run by power, a gasoline engine. The steel hopper is stationary, 
and the mixing is done by two horizontal revolving metal paddles, moving in opposite 
directions. 



DUCK DOLLARS 33 

is not true of ducks. By overfeeding a hen you can ^^ „ 

stop her laying, but vou cannot overfeed a duck so as to ^ , , 

, , •• " Overfeeding 

stop her laying. 

The pens inside the cold house should be bedded when necessary. 
For bedding, hay, straw, sawdust, meadow hay, leaves or baled shavings 
can be used. The shavings are best. They are cheaper and more con- 
venient to handle. A bale of them weighing from ninety to lOO pounds 
costs only about twenty-five cents. 

This bedding should be put down inside the pens in the house to a 
depth of one inch to start. The foundation is dry sand or gravel. A 
new layer of bedding should be put down twice a week 
on top of the old bedding. It is not necessary to clean . 

out the old shavings. If the pens are cleaned out with 
a fork twice a year, that is enough. 

The bedding should be changed on some fair day when the ducks are 

outdoors out of the way. Do not change the bedding 

while they are inside of the house, for if you do it will ^ . .. 
c ■ u^ 4.U Bedding 

frighten them. 

The ducks tread down the manure and shavings into a hard layer. 
The peculiarity of this manure (for the mass is nearly all manure) is 
that it does not heat and ferment in the pens indoors, but when you throw 
it outdoors in a pile it does heat and ferment. It is a splendid dressing 
for lawns or for general use about the farm, same as any manure. It is 
very rich, and vegetation to which it is applied will thrive luxuriantly. 

Grow vegetables in the summer to feed to the ducks in the winter. 

Anything in the vegetable line is good, such as turnips, carrots, mangels, 

cabbages, small potatoes and beets. A change in the u h 

food can be made with advantage every other day, giving ^^ 

. Necesssrv 

the same vegetables to the birds only three times 

a week. For a large number of ducks, a great labor-saving machine is 
a vegetable cutter. Run the vegetables through the cutter so that when 
they come out they will be in pieces about three-eighths or one-half an 
inch square. The ordinary hand cutter is sufficient even for a big lot of 
ducks. It is not necessary to run the cutter by power. After the vege- 
tables have been cut, boil them in kettle, tank or caldron. Small potatoes 
should be boiled and then mashed while hot with a pestle. „ ., . 
skins and all. The vegetables should be boiled until 
they are soft. It takes carrots about two hours boiling 
to soften. 

Cut clover for ducks costs about $1.50 per 100 pounds. It is cut 
clover which has been cured dry. 

Ducks use their bills in rooting as pigs root with their snouts. 

Loam frequented by a flock will get to look as if a harrow had been run 

over it. Ducks root to get grubs and worms, which they love and which 

do them good, making their eggs more fertile. Hens 

Trucks j^rc 
scratch the surface of the ground only, but ducks get 

under the surface. A newly-plowed field or a swamp is 
much enjoyed by ducks. They will root there until they are filled clear to 
the neck with worms. Insect life of all kinds is relished. If a young duck- 
ling by chance eats a bee or a hornet, the duckling will be injured or per- 



34 DUCK DOLLARS 

haps killed. There are many homes with orchards, sink-spout or a little 
meadow where a flock of ducks would be very much at home and have 
a fine time. It is good business to turn ducks into such places because 
the worms cut down the grain bill and are just so much clear gain in 
cost. 

The proper number of ducks (which you are saving for breeding) 
to be kept outdoors in the summer in one flock is lOO. Do not keep 
more than lOO on one grass range. If you do, they are more liable to 
run over one another in case of fright or panic and hurt their wings. 

The grass range for lOO ducks should be at least 150 
feet long and fifty feet wide. 
^ The ducks are up and about all night long more or 

less. They rest in the sun in the daytime, but at night they do not care 
to be absolutely tranquil. 

During a black night, with no moon, they are liable to take alarm 

and crowd over one another in fright in a corner of the pen, and this 

will result in injured wings, and lameness of some of the birds. To avoid 

this a lantern should be lighted and hung from a limb of 

an ern a ^ ^^^^ j^^ ^j^^ grass range or from a wooden post planted 

'^ in the middle of the grass range. The light from this 

lantern will enable the birds to see the pen and one another, and they 

do not take alarm nor crowd. The oil in the lantern lasts easily all 

night long. The lantern should be filled with oil every day. This item 

of kerosene oil for the lanterns is a small one even on big plants. 

Some breeders with fancy houses and pens, who have electric light 
on their premises, also have electric light for their ducks, having one 
small twelve or sixteen candle-power bulb for each pen. 

Ducks in a new home, or even ducks in their old home, do not all 

begin laying at the same time. Given a certain flock of ducks, if half of 

tliem are laying by February ist, that is doing very well. 

•^ One month later all of them may be laying. We are 

^ speaking of our latitude now, remember. In southern 

latitudes, like that of Virginia, for example, ducks begin to lay earlier. 

Birds that are hatched in March begin laying in August. This is true 

all through the South and on the Pacific coast. 

Ducks do well in Canada. Unlike hens, they are fond of snow. 

They will wade around in the snow and slush and enjoy getting out on 

snow during the daytime, even in the coldest weather. However, to 

, get eggs from them, their feet should be kept warm, and 

' this means that in cold, snowy places like Canada they 

should not be allowed to stand on the snow all the time, 

but should be protected by being given a chance to go inside a house. 

The breeding ducks will lay better if you let them outdoors every 
day during the winter, except when it is bitterly cold. If there is water 
in the yards which has not frozen, or which has been melted by the sun, 
they will play in it, and it will not hurt them. After a fall of snow, it 
is well to shovel about ten feet from the house out into the pens so that 
they will have a space to rest in during the day without being liable 
to cold feet. They will play on the snow, but they will not lay so well 
when their feet get cold. Of course, they know enough to court the bare 



DUCK DOLLARS 35 

ground in preference to the snow, and you do not spend any time driving 
them from the snow to the dirt. 

We beheve in keeping the old birds breeding and laying for two 
full years, or until they are twenty-eight to thirty months old. Then 
they can be sold off for market. If sold alive, they will 
bring from eight to nine cents a pound — if dressed, from r* 

eleven to twelve cents a pound. They are not worth so 
much as a duckling because they are old and tough. They can be told 
by their extra large size, the darker color of the bill, and the hard- 
ness of the breast-bone. The breast-bone of a duckling at killing age is 
not hard, but soft— it is only gristle. We do not keep breeding ducks 
at work longer than two years, because they have done a lot of work by 
the end of that period, and are not equal to any more. At any rate, with 
plenty of young stock coming along all the time, there is no need of 
taking the risk of infertile eggs. You can always find live ducks of breed- 
ing age advertised for sale, but the price tells whether they are young 
stock suitable for breeding, or the old, worn-out birds, . 
good only for the pot. If the price is from $i to $2 

each, you can be sure that the birds are not good for ^ , . 

I3uclcs 
breeding, but are castaways, no longer wanted by their 

owner, who is trying to get rid of them alive for something above the 

market price for killed old birds. Remember, a bird of breeding age is 

two or three months older than a duckling of the killing age. No 

breeder can afford to feed and keep his choice birds that length of time, 

culling out unfavorable specimens meantime, and sell them at low prices, 

if he has any reputation for breeding, and pays his bills. If he wanted 

the $1 selling price with the least cost price to himself, he would 

have sold the duckling to market at killing age. The fact that he has 

kept the bird for months beyond the killing age and \ Good 

then offers it for $i, or even $2, shows that he is letting Market 

it go at less than cost, and therefore he is getting rid of Always 

it because he has no further use for it. It is not right for anybody to sell 

such stock alive, representing that it is good for breeding. The market 

for prime young breeding stock always is steady at good prices. 

Sex, Pairing, Breeding 

The duck is distinguished from the drake both by sight and by 
hearing. 

The drake, when full-feathered perfectly, has in his tail-feathers one 

feather which curls up, as shown in the picture. This is not an invariable 

test, because sometimes the curl feather may have been ^ 

,, , , ^ , ,^. ^, Ducks and 

pulled out, or lost out from moltmg or other cause. 

The curl feather shows on the drake when he is four 

months old, and it is sign of puberty; in other words, that he is ready for 

breeding. 

A duck quacks, but a drake does not. The drake makes a noise — 

it is a sort of low, rasping, hissing-like noise hard to describe, but much 

different from the quack which the duck makes, and which you can 

instantly distinguish. 



36 



DUCK DOLLARS 




Drake, Sho\vinK Curl Feather 



This photograph of a drake shows the curl eather in the tail which is first seen 
at puberty and is the mark of the sex. The ducks do not have it. Sometimes a 
drake will be found without this curl feather, which may have been lost in molting, 
or have been pulled out. In examining a lot of birds, the quickest way to tell the 
sex is to pick theni up one by one by the neck and listen to the noise or note 
which each makes. 



DUCK DOLLARS ^,7 

A drake is generally larger than the duck, but not always. 
The best and quickest way to distinguish the sex of a bird is to pick 
It up by the neck and listen to the noise which it 
immediately makes. When we are examining a pen of ^*^^ *** ^**" 
them rapidly, we never take time to look for the curled t'^g^'sh Sex 
tail feather. We pick each up by the neck, one after the other, and listen 
to the note, or noise, made by each, the decision being made instantly. 

Ducks will lay eggs, but not fertile eggs unless they have had inter- 
course with a drake. We have known a beginner to run an incubator 
the specified time, filled with eggs laid by ducks with 
which no drake was allowed to run; result, no ducklings Fertilization 
from said eggs, which was quite a puzzle to the beginner Necessary 
until he thought the matter over. Some people have no imagination, 
or take everything for granted, or are actually ignorant about the simplest 
things. Given a duck's egg, it does not follow that the egg is fertile. 
The beginner should be sure that the eggs which he puts into the incu- 
bator come from ducks which have received the attentions of drakes. 
It is not uncommon for incubator experimenters to fill up the machine 
with eggs bought at a grocery store. These beginners do not know, 
nor do they seem to care, whether eggs have been fertilized or not. 

The duck in love-making makes the first move by bowing her head 
low; then the drake bows his head low. They bow faster and faster; 
the duck squats and permits the drake to mount her. 
He seizes her with his bill by the back of her head, wear- ^^^^^ 
ing the feathers off as the season progresses. Connec- P^'""S 
tion being quickly performed, the drake drops, or falls, from the duck, 
and bolts away from her five or six feet, then stops. 

When you see the ducks and drakes bowing to each other, this is 
the sign that they wish to pair, and will, then or soon. 

The first active period of heat comes on when the duck or drake is 

about five months old. In excessive heat, and without drakes, ducks 

■ sometimes will mount each other, acting like two cows, or two female 

rabbits. Do not be led astray in the matter of sex by observing such 

actions. 

One service of drake to duck will fertilize a dozen eggs. One drake 
will attend five ducks. Twenty-five ducks to five drakes 
is the most successful proportion, no more. ^^^ Right 

Drakes have no preference for a certain duck in Proportion 
their love affairs. As a rule, they do not quarrel among themselves over 
a duck or ducks, or interfere with one another. Sometimes all the drakes 
in a pen except one will annoy or persecute that one. He seems to 
make all the rest jealous or irritable unanimously, and they unite to pre- 
vent him from paying attention to any duck in the pen. Such a drake 
should be removed from the pen, as the others will make his life mis- 
erable. 

The drakes are strong, and one can force a duck to have connection 
against her will. This is not true of most animals. It is best not to 
interfere with him. At first, the ducks will invite him; 
as the period goes on, they will not. The drakes act in ^^^ Drakes 
a bold, aggressive manner all the time except when they ^^^ Strong 



38 



DUCK DOLLARS 




Figure 1. 



Figure 2. 



How to Handle Live Birds 



This is the way to pick up and carry the Uve ducks and drakes which are four 
weeks old or more. (Do not handle the little ducklings just out of the incubator in 
this manner.) Catch the birds by the neck in a firm grasp, as shown m Figure i. 
Never pick up a bird by the body. If you do you will make trouble both for yourself 
and the duck. Carry them from pen to pen, or from pen to killing-house, as shown 
in Figure 2. Do not fear that you will strangle the ducks or break their necks. 

You can carry three or four birds, or more, as many as you can lift, between two 
hands, in front of your body. 



DUCK DOLLARS 39 

do not wish to pair. Then they go about with their heads and necks 
drawn in. When they are making love, they extend their heads and 
necks, and walk proudly. 

The drakes keep cleaner and whiter than the ducks. Their bills are 
a darker orange color. 

Drakes and ducks are stronger sexually than other animals their 
size, or anywhere near their size, and their reproductive 
work proves it. The testicles of the drake (inside the "*^ ^ ^^ 
body) are of extraordinary size, as large as eggs or 
lemons. The duck lays an astonishing number of the big, fertile eggs. 

Suppose you wish to pick out certain ducks or drakes from a pen, 
for breeding or for killing, or for examination, or for any purpose. Do 
not go at it single-handed. Get a helper. Also a board 
ten feet long and a foot wide. Give your helper one end ^ 

of the board and you take the other end. Both you and 
your helper then walk to a corner of the pen, holding the board 
between you, driving the ducks along ahead of the board into the corner. 
Then you can reach the duck or drake you wish and pick it up by the 
neck. Never attempt to drive more than twenty at a time into a corner. 

The following does not apply to j^oungsters, but only to grown ducks 
and drakes : Always catch a bird by the neck, in a firm grasp. Never 
pick up a bird by the body. If you do you will make 
trouble for yourself and the duck. You are liable to ^^'^ ** 
bend, or twist, or dislocate or break the bones of the 
wings and legs. You can carry three or four ducks, or more, as many 
as you can lift, between two hands, in front of your body. Do not be 
afraid of strangling the ducks or breaking their necks. 

The foregoing applies only to birds beyond the age of four weeks. 
Little ones just out of the incubator can be gathered by armfuls or 
apronfuls. From one to four weeks of age they can be handled best by 
picking them up with the hand around the body, and this will not hurt 
them. 

Walk around, not through. Never walk through a flock of ducks, 
young or old. Always go around them. An inexperienced person 
will always try to go through a flock, which will con- -^xr ,. j. 
fuse the ducks, and some will crowd under his feet and ^ 
will get hurt either by his feet or by themselves as 
they jostle one another. Just walk slowly and take yous time, and they 
will get by you. Do not rush around among them. 

A yearling duck is not a duck that has lived a year, but a duck which 
has passed through one year's work. For example, a duck may be 
hatched in March, but she will not be a yearling duck what Are 
the following March. She will not be a yearling duck Yearling 
until the end of the second December following the Ducks ? 
March in which she was hatched. By that time she has passed through 
one year's laying. 

The selection of breeders should be going on all the time while you 

are killing. Select the very best and save them for 

breeders and kill the balance for market. To examine „ , 

Dreeoers 
a bird in order to find out whether it should be saved 

for breeding, pick it up by the neck, look at it and feel of it. 



40 DUCK DOLLARS 

In selecting breeders, first look for the largest, but do not take a 
large bird that is sluggish in behavior. The big, active ducks make the 
best breeders. Do not take any birds which have black feathers. Black 
feathers are not necessarily a sign of bad blood. They may be what is 
known as a " throw-back " in the breeding or a " sport," liable to come 
out in any breeding, no matter how pure the stock is. 

In breeding large numbers of ducks there will occasionally be freaks, 
such as three-legged and four-legged ducks. We have seen three-legged 
and four-legged ducks grow until we killed them for market. The supple- 
mentary legs were not so large as the two legs on which the duck 
walked, but were dwarfed. 

Sometimes a duck will be found with more than one egg orifice. We 
have seen freak ducklings with as many as five egg orifices. 

We do not do any inbreeding. Our stock is crossbred. In the years 

that we have been building up our strain, we have greatly increased the 

size of the breast and the depth of the keel. By poor 

selection of breeders from year to year and thoughtless 

inbreeding, some breeders of Pekins of our acquaintance have weakened 

their stock, and cannot now produce the bird they ought. 

The breeder should aim to introduce new blood into a certain pen 

or pens every other year, to keep up the size and vitality. 

^^ ° A drake which, for example, has served three to five 

, . ducks for two seasons should be replaced by another at 

Inbreeding ,, j r ^u *. 4.- 

the end of that time. 

We do not do any pedigree or record-keeping. Such drudgery is a 
waste of time and is a wholly unnecessary detail. By separating the birds 
into flocks, each with its drake or drakes, there cannot be inbreeding. 

It is surprising what improvements a duck breeder, if he is careful 
and intelligent, can make in his flock in size and good laying qualities, 
by selection of the best specimens from year to year. 
v^^i^^ We have got our birds up to the point where they pro- 

duce twice the number of fertile eggs which the earlier 
generations did years ago, and the birds have a longer and deeper keel, 
and weigh more. These are important factors in moi ey-making, espe- 
cially the matter of fertility. Those who start with our breeding stock 
get the benefit of the years of study and selection we have done. They 
should continue the work with their own breeding stock, remembering to 
save for breeders only the largest and best birds. 

Do not get the idea that you can buy any kind of a white Pekin 
duck and in quick time build up a strain of superior size and breeding 
qualities. You might just as well try to breed a race-horse out of com- 
mon drudge horses. The blood that makes for size and 
fertility can be produced only by years of effort. It is 
much better to start with a trio of stock at $io a head 
than to buy a bargain lot at $2 or $3 apiece, or even 
less, as they are sometimes sold. The precious seed eggs from first- 
class stock only are what you wish to secure from the ducks you are 
breeding. By buying first-class breeding stock or eggs you jump over 
years of effort which you will have to go through if you start with scrub 
ducks picked up at bird and poultry stores, or bought here and there 
of anybody who happens to have a few ducks. 



DUCK DOLLARS 41 

The Egg 

Shut up the breeding ducks and drakes at night and do not let them 
out until eight o'clock the next morning. They lay their 
eggs during the night and early morning. By eight ^^* ^* ^ 
o'clock in the morning they have all laid. ^ 

Fill the water pails in the outside yard and let the ducks out to drink, 
then go from pen to pen inside the house and gather up the eggs. 

Sometimes a very cold night will come on in our latitude. In that 
case it is necessary to go around as soon as you can in the morning to 
get the eggs, so that they will not have a chance to freeze. (This applies 
only to a cold house. In a warm house you would not have to watch 
out so carefully for frozen eggs.) One frosty morning, in the value of 
eggs spoiled by freezing (provided you are not on guard), would more 
than pay for the heater necessary to warm the house. 

If the weather is stormy, do not let the ducks out of the houie, but 
go around from pen to pen among them slowly gather- 
ing up the eggs. Do not go hurriedly, for if you do 

.,, ^, the Ducks 

you will scare them. 

Use a basket to gather up the eggs. Some eggs are in the shavings 
where the ducks have hidden them. Sometimes a duck will make a nest 
three or four inches under the shavings, then lay in the nest and cover 
the eggs with shavings. She will do this night after night in the same 
place, so after you have once located the place you can go to it morning 
after morning unfailingly. Most of the eggs are in plain sight, on top of 
the shavings. 

The first eggs of a duck are infertile. After she has laid several eggs 
then they begin to run fertile. The first eggs should be used for cooking 
or sold at market, where they bring from thirty cents a 
dozen up. They almost invariably bring more than hens' t f -i 

eggs, and there is a good demand for them. They are a 
trifle different in taste from hens' eggs. There is some prejudice against 
duck eggs in some markets on account of the fishy taste found in the 
eggs of common or puddle ducks. Ducks which are fed 
on grain lay fine eggs of good flavor. As far as cooking 
goes, duck eggs taste the same as hens' eggs, and a duck ^^ 

egg will equal two hens' eggs. 

The number of eggs laid by the duck steadily increases. By Febru- 
ary ist, in our climate, about half of them should be laying. We begin 
to save eggs for the incubators as soon as we see that the production 
of eggs is increasing steadily from day to day. 

As soon as gathered, the eggs should be taken in the gathering 

basket to a cellar and washed there in cold water at a temperature of 

about forty-five degrees. Do not use ice-water or hot „,. . . 

T, . ... , ,.,, ^, Washing the 

water. If you use ice-water, you will freeze or chill the 

germs in them. If you use warm water, you will start 
the germs to growing. 

Use a cloth to wipe the eggs clean. After washing them, put them 
in a basket in the cellar, and keep them there at a temperature of about 



DUCK DOLLARS 43 

forty-five degrees, so that they will not freeze and so that germination 
will not start. The ordinary cellar of a house is just the right tempera- 
ture. The air should be good in the cellar, that is to say, not foul or 
close, because the egg-shells are porous. 

While they are being kept in the baskets in the cellar, the eggs should 
be handled every three or four days so that they will not spoil. That is 
to say, they should be taken up and turned. The object 
of this is to prevent the yolk from sticking to the side 
of the shell. In warm weather if the egg is allowed to ^^ 
stay in one position continuously, the white will get soft and the yellow 
will go through the white to the shell. 

The eggs should be kept in the cellar no longer than two weeks 
before putting them into the incubator. We have kept them a month, 
but not more than two weeks is the best time. 

If the tempera ure of the cellar rises to fifty-five or sixty degrees, a 
slow process of incubation goes on inside the eggs. Keep the eggs more 
than two weeks in a cellar at sixty degrees instead of forty degrees, and 
they will hatch earlier than others. 

In selecting eggs for the incubator, do not take all of them. Take 
only the perfect eggs. Eggs which are small, large, ill-shapeJ, and hav- 
ing holes or pit-marks should be rejected. The selecting 
or sorting of eggs might be done after washing and the **^ ^^ 
rejected eggs used for cooking. Two weeks in the cellar 
would not spoil the eggs for household use. 

The incubator should be cleaned and put in order, the lamp lighted 
and the machine run empty for two days at a temperature of 102 degrees. 
Then put in the eggs. The temperature will fall at once p^.^ j^^ ^j^^ 
because the eggs are cool, but do not fuss with the cubator 
regulator. Leave it alone and let the temperature rise to 
102 degrees, as it will, slowly, in twenty-four hours. The thermometer 
then will be 102 degrees again. 

After the eggs have been in the machine thirty-six hours take the 
tray out of the machine, put it on a table nearby and turn the eggs with 
fingers or hand. Run the flat of the hand over them so as to roll them 
around, stir them. It is not necessary to turn them an exact half-circle. 
The object of turning them is to supply new albumen to the germ. The 
embryo feeds on the white of the egg. When you turn the egg with 
your hand you give an opportunity for new food, new albumen to get to 
the embryo. A hen instinctively turns her eggs in the nest twice a day 
for the same reason. 

The little duckling is made wholly from the white of the egg. The 
albumen contains the feathers, flesh, everything. The object of the yolk 
is to furnish food for the duckling during the last few days of its life 
in the shell. ^ 

After that first turning of the eggs thirty-six hours " . 
after having being put in, the eggs should be turned ^ p • 
morning and evening. 

The incubator cools off more or less while you are turning the eggs 
on the tray on the table nearby, but this should cause no alarm. When 



44 



DUCK DOLLARS 




Where They Lay Their Ekks 



This house is lieated by hot water so that the eggs will not be frozen on 
cold winter nights. The pens have a dirt (not board) floor and shavings are put 
down for bedding. The partitions between the pens are not made of wire but of 
boards, so that the pens will not be drafty. The ducks lay at night. Some try to 
hide their eggs in the shavings, but they are easily found, and the same ducks will 
try to hide them in the same places the following night. Let the birds outdoors 
at eight o'clock in the morning and then go from pen to pen and gather the eggs 
in a basket. 



DUCK DOLLARS 



45 



a hen leaves her nest, as she does to go off for food, eggs which were 
being covered in the nest are cooled off. 

On the- evening of the seventh day after the eggs have been put in, 
they should be tested. That is to say, if you put the eggs in on Satur- 
day, they should be tested the following Friday. Duck 



Testing the 
Eggs 



eggs have a white shell, which is transparent, and it is 

very easy to test them. We have a box big enough to 

hold a lamp. (These egg-testing lamps are made and sold in various 

forms.) Our box has a hole cut in the front of it a little smaller than 

the eggs. Felting is glued around the hole so that in handling the eggs 

rapidly they will not be knocked and broken against the wood. 

The operator should take four or five eggs in his hand. He can test 
them very rapidly, as fast as he can pass them in front of the opening. 
The light is confined by the hole in the box, and when 
the egg is put over the felting the hole is stopped and ^ ^^ 

all the light from the lamp must shine directly through 
the egg. 

If the egg is a fertile one, and has been germinating while it has 
been in the machine, you will see inside of the egg something like a spider. 
Veins will cover almost the entire egg. You can see the speck forming 
the eye of the duckling, and, in- fact, the little duckling 
itself. The development covers nearly the entire interior Infertile Eggs 
of the egg. If you do not see this development, you will 
know that the egg is infertile. 

If you find an egg which is cloudy or addled, and without the spider- 
like network of veins, it is not good. Eggs that are addled can be 
mashed up, shells and all, and fed to your growing ducks with their grain 
mixture. 

Any eggs which you find black or bad-smelling should be thrown 
away. 

The clear eggs in which you find no germ and which are not addled 
you can use in cooking, or you can sell them. 




Egg-Testing Lamp 



Fertile Egg, Seventh Day 

If the egg is fertile and has been germina- 
ting in the incubator for seven days, you will 
see something like above picture. 

The white space at the end is the airspace. 
The white line all around the egg is the 
membrane just inside the shell. 




■ 








1 


§1 

r 
1 




*ft 


^H ^ 


;: 




^m ;^ J 


1- -.-'"^ 


1* 



DUCK DOLLARS 47 

This testing should be done in the incubator house alongside of the 
machine. In very cold weather we use a cloth and cover the eggs while 
we have them out of the machine, so that the heat can be kept in them 
as much as possible. Test a whole trayful before putting them back into 
the incubator. Work quickly in cold weather. 

There is no more testing of the eggs, but you must turn them in the 
incubator night and morning, twice a day, right along until hatching. 
If an egg shows black while you are doing this at any time, such an egg 
should be thrown out, for it is rotten. If when you open the incubator 
you detect a bad smell, you can find the egg which is at fault, if you 
cannot see it, by running your nose along the eggs, held close to them, 
until you come to the bad one. It should then be thrown out. 

The eggs should begin to pip on the twenty-fourth day after being 
put into the machine. When you see this pipping starting among the 
eggs, stop turning them and do not open the machine 
until the hatch is over. The hatch should be completed, When They 
if the machine is run properly, on the twenty-eighth day. "^**^" 
Remove all eggs that have not hatched at that time, and all shells. 

The temperature of the machine for the first three weeks should be 
102 degrees, and for the last or fourth week 103 degrees. 

In minor matters not covered by our directions under " The Egg," 
run the machine according to the directions which go with the incubator. 

After hatching, the ducklings should be left in the incubator from 
twelve to thirty-six hours, until they have dried ofi. Just before the 
eggs hatch, the ducklings absorb the yolk and live on 
that for thirty-six or forty-eight hours. If they are ^^^'^ ^^ *<*« 
taken out of the machine too quickly they are not ^"'*^^ 
hungry and will not eat. You should leave them in the machine from 
twelve to thirty-six hours, so that they will not only be dried, but hungry. 

Take them out of the machine gently. Pick them up or guide them 
with the fingers by handfuls and sweep them into the basket. Then 
remove them to the brooder or brooder house. The temperature of the 
brooder or brooder house should be near ninety degrees. The food and 
water should be already in the brooder before you put the little ducklings 
in from the incubator. They will be hungry and will go to eating and 
drinking at once. 



Youngest Ducklings 

You have allowed the ducklings to stay in the incubator twenty-four 
hours after they have come out of the shells. They are double the size 
of a chicken, and in appearance about twice the size of the egg-shell 
which enclosed them. 

A period of twenty-four hours in the machine dries them so that 
they are strong enough to stand on their feet. They 
have absorbed through the navel the yolk which sur- Them 

rounded them at birth, and this sustains them for the ^^ 
twenty-four hours. 

At the end of the twenty-four hours put them into a basket and carry 



48 



DUCK DOLLARS 




Duckliims 1 wo Weeks Old 

They are shown here in the yards of the first nursery house. When this 
picture was taken, the small slides through which the birds pass from house to 
vard were all open. These slides are left open during the day so that the duck- 
lings can pass in and out at will. At night the ducklings are driven into the 
house and the slides closed. 



DUCK DOLLARS 



49 



this basket to your brooder or nursery of first brooding house. Put them 
in the runs, which are three feet wide and nine feet long. 

The Hot-water pipes are not on the ground, but are eight inches 
above it. On top of the water pipes is a wooden cover, one for each 
pen. The object of having the hot-water pipes above the Heat in the 
ducklings is to give them heat from the top such as they Brooding 
would get from un er the natural mother. Bottom heat House 
would weaken the legs of the ducklings and is not natural. The little 
creatures huddle up closely to each other under the hot-water pipes so as 
to get the heat on their backs. Should they touch the hot-water pipes 
they cannot be burned. 

Take these youngest ducklings into the nursery just before noon, the 
warmest part of the day. 

Their first food has been previously placed on the food boards ready 
for them. There is a water drinking fountain in each pen, the No. i or 
smallest size (see page 50). This water dish, like the others, is 
arranged so that the ducklings cannot jump into the water and get 
damp, and also so that no water can stand in it for any length of time. 
A self-feeding reservoir fountain is exactly what is not wanted. The 
water should be renewed at each feeding time. It is not necessary to 
scald the fountains, but they should be rinsed out. They may be scalded, 
say once a week. 

The first food includes bread-crumbs and rolled oats. The rolled 
oats are the same as a.e commonly used for the table, 
costing from $3.25 to $5 a barrel, each barrel weighing ^^^ ^^^^^ 
180 pounds. Feed 

The bread-crumbs are made from stale bread by running the bread 
through a meat grinder. Buy dry, stale bread from the bakers for about 
one cent a pound, $20 a ton. Also use up dry and stale home bread. 
Bread-crumbs for a small number of ducklings can be prepared from 
the bread by hand without a machine. 

Take half rolled oats and half bread-crumbs to make this first mix- 
ture. Take them by measure, not by weight. Use for a measure an 
ordinary quart measure. Take one pailful of rolled oats and one pailful of 
bread-crumbs, or two pailfuls of rolled oats and two pailfuls of bread- 
crumbs, and so on. Put in five per cent, of good, sharp, ordinary 
sand with the bread-crumbs and rolled oats. The object 
of this sand is to provide grit, which the little ducklings ^^^'^ Forget 
need as well as the old ones. Two handfuls of sand to *^^ ^^"** 
each pailful of mixture is what we mean by five per cent. Put these three 
ingredients, rolled oats, bread-crumbs and sand, into a box and mix them 
in the box. Then moisten this mixture with water, not enough to make 
the mixture sloppy, but just enough to moisten the particles. If you 
have milk, you can use milk instead of water, because the ducklings will 
grow faster when milk is used than when water is used. Understand, do 
not make this first mixture sloppy. Make it damp, that is the idea. 

The foregoing is the food for these newly-hatched ducklings for 
forty-eight hours after being put into the nursery. The food is there in 
each pen as the ducklings are put into it from the basket from the 
incubator. 



50 



DUCK DOLLARS 






No. 1 



Water Fountains for Ducklings 



These three sizes must be used for successful results. The smallest, or No. i 
size, is used for the youngest ducklings. The No. 2 size is used next. When the 
ducklings are four weeks old, the No. 3 size is used. For birds near killing age, or 
older, use an ordinary pail or water trough (see below). 

The No. 3 size fountain is too large for the little ducklings. They would get 
inside of it and drown. The smaller sizes are not large enough for the ducklings 
after they have grown, because the water then would not be deep enough to reach 
their nostrils. The ducklings need water deep enough to souse their bills wholly in it, 
so that they can wash from their nostrils any sawdust or food which may lodge there. 







Food and Water Troughs 

These should be built in different sizes. They are used both indoors and out 
as directed. There is no hard and fast rule for their size and constructioni The 
caretaker should use them according to the age of the ducklings. 



DUCK DOLLARS 5i 

Do not stand and watch these Uttle ducklings. They will not feed 
until you go away and leave them alone. The food is Leave Them 
scattered on a board and the ducklings walk out from Alone 
under the hot-water pipes to the board and eat, now and then going to 
the water fountain for a drink. The run-way is partitioned ofif half-way 
with a board placed there temporarily so that they will not wander too 
far from the hot-water pipes and get down to the window where it is 
cold. At night they are shut in completely under the hot-water pipes 
by taking this board and moving it up to the head of the pen, next the 
top board above the hot-water pipes. 

For the first two days, the food above described should be before 
these youngest ducklings continuously. For that reason, 
visit the nursery five tmies a day for these hrst two days Them 

to renew the food on the boards in the pens and to 
renew the water in the fountains. 

The food board is three feet long, the same width as the pen, and 
six inches wide. This has laths nailed on the ends and sides to prevent 
the food from sliding ofif or from being pushed ofif. 

The beginner should be constantly impressed with the importance of 
keeping the brooders scrupulously clean. Every other day the droppings 
and dirty sawdust should be removed from under the 
pipes. The best way to go at this job is from the walk gj.^jQjjgj.g 
side of the brooder. Take ofif the cover. With a narrow 
shingle, scrape out underneath the pipes, taking out only the wet and 
dirty sawdust, and putting it into a bushel basket which is carried outside 
when full; or, in a larger brooder house, use a wheelbarrow. As each 
brooder is cleaned, put in a thin layer of fresh, dry sawdust from a basket 
taken on your arm from pen to pen. 

The food boards should be scraped with a shingle or piece of tin each 
day to keep them respectably clean. Take up each board (-jiganUj^gss 
and scrape it into a basket. It will be covered with j«g^gj^j.jgj 
sawdust, refuse, etc. 

In our system of care of brooder house, this scraping of the food 
boards and washing the fountains is done regularly every day after the 
two o'clock feedmg. The attendant goes along each pen, picking up the 
fountains and food boards and placing them on the brooder covers. The 
boards are then scraped (with a sheet iron scraper about six inches 
square) into a bushel basket, this refuse being thrown on the manure 
pile. The fountains are then washed and rinsed, after which they are 
filled with water while standing on the brooder tops. On a plant of 
large magnitude, three men work together doing this job. While the 
cleaning of boards and fountains is going on, one of the men is bedding 
the pens, using dry pine sawdust for this purpose. When the task is 
completed, the men immediately begin putting down the fountains and 
food boards, and the ducklings then are ready to receive their next food. 

The five feeding times are as follows: 6 a.m., 9 a.m., 11.30 a.m., 2.30 
p.m., 5.30 p.m. The ducklings will get eager and hungry p^^^j^^ 
and will cry for food at each of these feeding times. ^^^^^ 
They are not old enough to make a quacking noise, but 



S'^ 



DUCK DOLLARS 




Thousands of Youngsters 



This shows how they look on a pleasant day out in the yards ol one ol the 
nursery houses. The narrow strips of wire netting which separate the pens cannot 
be seen in the picture, but they are there. Ducklings this age are quite an 
attractive sight. The small sliding doors are always up when the birds are out. 
They were dropped when the picture was taken so as to get all the ducklings in. 

Each pen of the youngsters is handled precisely the same as the next. In the 
fall, the wire netting is rolled up, the wood stakes pulled up and the grouud 
plowed and sown (in our latitude) to winter rye. This sweetens the ground as 
well as furnishing green food. If the birds were allowed to run on the same dirt 
vear after year, and make manure upon it, the ground would become tainted, 
affecting both the size and fecundity of the stock. 



DUCK DOLLARS 53 

peep. This peeping noise increases in volume until they are six weeks 
old. Then they begin to make a quack more like the old birds. 

When washmg out the drinking fountains, use a rag or dish-cloth 
and two pails of water. Wash in one pail and rinse in 
the other. ^^^''' . 

Be careful not to step on the little ducklings in giv- ^^^ * ^* 
ing the first food. They are v'cry tame and will get all ou d t5e 
around your feet if you give them a chance. ^^ ager 

Do not put down too much food on the boards. The night feeding 
should be the biggest of the five because the food eaten then has to last 
them through the night. 

Be sure to keep them eager and hungry. Do not load up the 
boards with the mixture so that they will overstufif themselves. Remem- 
ber that for these first two days they are learning to eat. 

In hot weather water them twice ae much as when the weather is 
cooler. Fill the fountain often. They will drink this water up quickly, 
within five or ten minutes, then fill the fountain up again. 
Do this watering always at each feeding. The easiest ^ .^^ ^^ 
way to get the water into the little fountains is to pour ^ ering 
it from a milk-can, which is better than a dipper because it holds more 
and is handled easier. Do not fill these milk-cans from a faucet. That 
would take too much time. Let the faucet water run into a tub and fill 
the milk-cans by dipping them into the tub. This saves work. 

Beginning with the third day, the food for the young ducklings 
changes to the weaning food. Mix the same ingredients of food as the 
first two days with bran and corn-meal in equal parts, by 
measure not by weight. That is to say, take one meas- ^ 

ure of rolled oats, one measure of bread-crumbs, one 
measure of bran and one measure of corn-meal; in other words, twenty- 
five per cent, of each. 

By bran we mean wheat shells, also called shorts. It is the outside, 
flaky shell of the wheat. It costs about $20 a ton in carload lots, but is 
cheaper in the West. It is a by-product of a flour mill. 

Corn-meal is common yellow Indian corn which has been ground, 
not cracked. It costs here in the East about the same as bran. This 
weaning food is given for sever jr eight days. 

When the ducklings are seven or eight days old. 
cut out the expensive rolled oats and bread-crumbs ^ 

and in their place in the mixture put low-grade flour, 
which costs about $28 a ton. 

Remember, that all these mixtures are moistened with water, but 
not so as to be sloppy. They should be damp. When 
you take up a handful which has been mixed properly r- h 

with water, it will not stick to the hands, but will hold 
compactly together in a lump. 

The food which begins at seven or eight days of age also has green 
stuflf and beef scraps. To summarize, then, prepare the food as follows : 
Equal parts of bran and corn-meal, ten per cent, of low-grade flour and 
ten per cent, of green stufif, such as green grass or rye or millet (which 
has been chopped up in a cutting machine or by hand in a pail), beef 



54 



DUCK DOLLARS 




Ducklings in the Sun at Midday 



These birds are seven weeks old. Youngest ducklings arc harmed by the hot 
rays of the midsummer sun, and should be given a chance to get into the shade. 
Remember that ducks at all ages should have access to shade. 



DUCK DOLLARS 55 

scraps five per cent., grit one per cent. The scraps, if too coarse, should 
be screened, the fine part being used for the small birds and the coarse 
part for the older ones. 

For grit use common sand and gravel off the farm for the first three 
days of the duckling's life. From then on use grit made 
from granite in tvi^o sizes, fine and medium. Use the " 
fine grit at first and the medium grit as the duckling gets older. 

Keep the ducklings in the first nursery house two to three weeks, 
depending on how you are fixed for room. If you have a hatch coming 
off from the incubator, clean out a sufficient number of pens in the 
nursery to make room for the new-comers. 

The nursery house has a dirt floor, not a board floor. This dirt 
(sand or gravel or dry loam or clay) should be in each pen with dry 
sawdust laid down on top of the sandy bottom. Carry 
this sawdust into the nursery house in a wheelbar- *^ ^^ 
row and shovel it from the wheelbarrow into the pens, ^^ "^* 
then rake it level to a depth of an inch. Use dry pine sawdust. ' Almost 
any sawdust except oak can be used. Do not use oak sawdust, for if you 
do it will turn the drinking water blue as it gets off the bills of the duck- 
lings, and this bluish drinking water does not smell or taste wholesome. 
Pine or spruce sawdust is good. 

When the ducklings are two or three weeks old, take them in a bas- 
ket, a pen at a time, to the second brooder house where 'pjjg Second 
the pens are four feet wide instead of three feet wide, Brooder 
and ten feet long instead of nine feet long. House 

All ducklings are fed four times a day in this second house at the 
following hours: 6 a.m., lo a.m., 2 p.m., 5.30 p.m. This 
second house has a hot-water heating arrangement 
exactly like the nursery house, except that the pipes are 
farther from the floor. 

The outdoor runs of this second brooder house are twenty feet long. 
It depends on the weather whether or not you let the three-week-old 
ducklings outdoors into these runs from the inside pen. On bright, 
sunny days, not too cold (if in winter) you can let them out, and 
their exercise outdoors will do them good. Remember, just now we are 
talking about our latitude and our winters. If you live in 
southern latitudes or in a warmer climate than ours, or if ^^^ ^^^ 
it is summer-time with you in this latitude, you can let ^ 

the young ones outdoors more freely. Do not let them out in the rain 
or snow. 

All the feeding in this second house is done inside the house, same 
as in the nursery house. The food boards in this second house are larger 
than in the nursery. They are four feet long and nine inches wide or just 
wide enough to be cleaned with a shovel. Before each feeding time, 
scrape off the saw ust, refuse food, etc., from each board with a shovel 
and throw this refuse into the walk of the house. Every four or five 
days this refuse should be raked into a pile and carted out in a wheel- 
barrow. 

The No. 2 water fountains used in this second house are made in the 



S6 DUCK DOLLARS 

same style as the fountains used in the nursery, only larger, and hold 
twice as much water. 

When the ducklings are four weeks old, change this No. 2 drinking 
fountain to the larger or No. 3 size. 
^^f **. You may ask why would not one size of water foun- 

Drinking ^^j^ ^^ ^jj ^.j^j^^ ^^^ ^j, ^^^^ ^j^^ largest, or No. 3, 

fountain would be too large for the little ducklings. 
They would get inside of it and drown. They would also struggle to 
reach the water and would weaken themselves. The smallest size is not 
large enough for the ducklings after they have grown because the water 
then would not be deep enough to reach their nostrils. The nostrils of 
a duck are plainly visible. They are two open holes at the base of the 
bill. The ducklings need water deep enough for them to souse their 
bills completely in it so that they can wash from nostrils any sawdust 
or food which may lodge there. 

When the ducklings are five weeks old, they are taken (on a large 
plant) from the second house to a third, called a cold house, that is to say, 

it has no heating apparatus. If the weather is cold when 

To the Cold ^, c 1 1^ -a <. . 

they are five weeks old, use your own judgment as to 

**"^^ putting them into the cold house. Wait until a warm, 

sunny day. It depends on the season and the locality. Ducks at this age 
can be driven in large flocks. 

Feed and water the ducklings outdoors in the pens of the cold house. 
They do better if fed outdoors. It depends on the weather. If you put 

them into the pens of the outdoor house in the morning 

Look Out for r , • j ^t ^ ^ 

of an early sprmg. and a northeast storm comes 

up. cold and raw. drive them back into the house and 




Winter Scene. Brooder House 



DUCK DOLLARS S7 

shut the doors and windows. The ducklings would not know enough 
to go into the house away from the storm. They would go to meet the 
storm, as far from the house as they could get, at the end of the run. 
The rain would not drive them in. The ducklings would stand up as 
straight as they could so as not to get their backs very wet, but they 
would not know enough to go into the house. The rain would beat down 
upon them and exhaust them, and before long the little creatures would 
fall down exhausted and this exposure might kill them. Remember we are 
talking now about the young ducklings. The old duck- 
lings know enough to go in out of the rain. When the ^ 

storm breaks, they will scoot for the house. The duck- 
lings eight, nine, ten and eleven weeks of age, and older, will stand rain 
in our latitude. 

May is the worst month in New England to watch for weather in 
managing young ducklings. 

The cold house is the home of the ducklings from five weeks until 
they are eight weeks old, when they are ready for fattening. The 
object of the cold house is simply to keep them out of the rain and 
snow. In the summer-time, or in southern latitudes, an orchard which 
has shade trees will do for ducklings when five weeks old, except on days 
when big storms come up. On those days the young ducklings must 
be housed. 

Where only forty or fifty pailfuls of food are used daily, the best way- 
to get it to the different houses and yards is by use of a wheelbarrow. 
The No. 7 size wheelbarrow will take ten or twelve pails. . 
If water must be conveyed, milk-cans (previously men- u v a 
tioned) are best to use, as the water will not spill in 
carrying them in the wheelbarrow. If, however, several hundred pailfuls 
of food are used daily, a large, four-wheeled truck may be used to advan- 
tage, provided the land is level enough to allow the men to draw it. 
otherwise it is best to use a horse and wagon. 



Fattening 

The fattening starts when the ducklings are eight weeks old. They 
are driven from the cold house at this age into outdoor (or fattening) 
sheds. These are sheds which are simply a roof on 
posts, the sides being open. The roof should be tight, ^. . ' 
but it is not necessary to make it absolutely tight b}'^ 
shingling or paper. All that is necessary is to nail battens over the 
cracks between the boards which form the roof. The fattening sheds 
are used from the end of April to November ist, in our latitude. In 
southern latitudes their use could begin earlier. 

In the fattening sheds, feed three times a day, morning, noon and 
night — 6 a.m., 12 m., and 6 p.m. Feed a mixture of corn-meal, low-grade 
flour, beef scraps, oyster-shells and grit, and green stufT when you have 
it. Mix the food in these proportions : Three parts of corn-meal, one 
part of low-grade flour, three-quarters of a part of beef scraps with about 
three per cent, of oyster-shells and grit mixed equally, then one part of 



S8 



DUCK DOLLARS 




Ready for Feeding 



On a large plant, wooden pails will be found to be the best means for carrying 
the food to the ducks. After the food is mixed in the house, it is put into the pails, 
which are stacked up as shown. If the ground is level and a large number of the 
pails are to be transported to the ducks, a four-wheeled truck (not shown in picture) 
drawn by two men is the best device for wheeling them. If a smaller number of the 
pails are to be transported, wheelbarrows are the handiest. 

Wooden pails are cheaper than galvanized iron, and they are better, because 
they may be nested when empty, and a lot of them carried by one man. Metal 
pails might be nested, but their combined weight on the arms of the operator would 
be very tiresome. 



DUCK DOLLARS 59 

green stuff, when you have it. The ducklings hke the looks of the mix- 
ture better and eat more of it when the green stuff is in . „. . ^ 

. • , A Rich Food 

It to give It color. Mixture 

This food is given until the ducklings are ten or 
eleven weeks old, when they are killed. This is a rich food mixture to 
fatten. 

The secret of properly feeding this fattening mixture three times a 
day is to feed just what will be eaten up clean in fifteen minutes. If 
there is any left over after the ducks have eaten briskly for fifteen min- 
utes, the food board should be scraped entirely clean. . 
When you get skilful at feeding from practice you will . 
know just how much to feed. The idea is not to give 
these fattening ducks too much food, for if you do they ^ 
will not keep fat. 

Make the morning feeding light. Make the noon feeding light. 

At night be more liberal. Then give them the food good ,, ^ , 

, T-1 • n 1 . xL xi u i-u ■ 1,.- More Food at 

and strong. This will last them through the night. 

Keep them eager. They ought to go to the man ^ 
who is feeding them at feeding time. Do not disturb the ducks while they 
are feeding. Go on about your business to the next pen. A green man 
standing around the food board and watching them will keep them away 
from their food. Scare them off and they will not go back to the food. 

Always wat;r before feeding. Give the water to these fattening 
ducks in water troughs built like illustration on page 50. 

Give the food to them on boards the width of a shovel. Keep the 
water trough close to the food board. Do not put it at the end of the 
yard, for if you do the ducks will not go to it to get 
water, especially in hot weather. They eat at the food .. ^ . 
board greedily, and they want water every now and then 
handy, to keep them from choking. They do not like water which has 
been standing in the sun. Give fresh water at each feeding time, also 
water between feedings. That is to say, this extra watering for the fat- 
tening birds is done at 9 a.m. and 2 p.m. 

You judge by the appearance of the bird when it is fat enough to 
kill. Killing age may be at eight, nine, ten, eleven or twelve weeks of 
age. Pick up the duck by the neck and feel of the body. 
Feel of the duck's back. If it is fat there it is fat all over. When to Kill 
If it is thin there, put it back into a pen reserved for 
culls. These culls should be examined three weeks after being thrown 
back to determine whether they are then fat enough to kill. 

If you cannot tell by feeling of the duck whether it is old enough 
to kill, put it in a bag and weigh it. When six or eight 
weeks old it ought to weigh four pounds, or four and ^ hT^^^ 

one-half pounds. At ten weeks it ought to weigh five ^ 

and one-half or six pounds. 

When they are really fat they ought to be killed. Keep them longer 
and they are going to lose some fat. 

When they are eleven to twelve weeks of age they have a light 
molt, shedding some feathers. They lose their appetites and go back 



6o 



DUCK DOLLARS 




Meal Time 



Wire netting separates these pens. (It can hardly be seen in the photo- 
graph.) These ducklings are in one of the cold houses and are si.\ weeks old. 
(In another week they will be ready to drive into the large fattening sheds.) 

They are seen getting their food out of the boards with raised edges and 
their water (look closely) from V-shaped watering troughs. It is important to 
set the food and water troughs near each other because the birds run to the 
water after every other mouthful, both to get a drink and to wash their bills. 
In the fall, these yards, as well as the others, are plowed and sown to green 
stuff (winter rye) in order to keep the soil fresh. 



DUCK DOLLARS 



6i 



in weight a little. They should be killed and sent to market just before 
this light molt starts. 

Do not mix at any one time more food than you need at that time, 
or it may sour over night. Get the knack of feeding so as not to have 
to clean up the boards after fifteen minutes of feeding. 
An experienced man seldom makes a mistake by over- Feed 

feeding. Sometimes in extremely hot weather the ^^^^ Pood 
ducks' appetites are hard to gauge. 

This stuf¥ which may be cleaned up after feeding should be scraped 
ofif, either into a pail or basket. It is not necessary to waste it even if it 
is a little sour. It may be mixed in and fed with new 
food, provided there is not much of it. It is said of the ^^ *"^ '" 
duck growers in France that they allow the food to sour ''^'^ce 
a little purposely for the reason that they think it fattens more quickly. 

Novices in the duck business have trouble in the brooder house 
with ducklings dying from sour food; watch out sharply for sour food 
there. If you should find any sour food there, you can get rid of it by 
mixing it with good food and giving it to the older birds. 

The color of the skin of a first-class duckling when ready for market 
should be white, not yellow. This is one of the reasons our ducks 
bring better prices in the markets. Yellow skin is 
caused by too much green food, or by letting the birds ^^}^^ ^* ^^^ 
stay on green grass ground too long before killing. ^'^^^ 




Fattening Yards 

Road down the middle allows easy access to all pens with food and water. 



63 DUCK DOLLARS 

For the last two weeks previous to killing the ducklings should be kept 
on bare (dirt) ground. The object of green food is to keep the bowels 
of the birds in a good, open, healthy condition. Too much eating of 
green and too much lying on green grass make their flesh yellow. 

In our latitude we use for green stufif much winter rye. We buy the 
seed not of a seed man, because he charges seed prices, but of a grain 
man, at grain prices. We sow this winter rye in the 
Winter Rye j^^^^^ ^^^^ ^^ September and the first part of October. 
Sow it in September and you have a chance to cut it twice before freez- 
ing. The ground where we plant it (the runs) is so rich with the duck 
manure that the winter rye grows much faster than on the average farm. 
It does not freeze in the winter, but stays green. If a warm day should 
come and the snow melt in the winter, you can cut the winter rye and 
feed it to the ducks. Just before we expect a snow-storm we cut it 
and keep it frozen in a building where no sun penetrates. It will keep 
well. Use as necessary. 

Killing, Picking, Shipping 

The killing is done by the picker, who stands, holding the duckling 

between his legs, takes a sharp knife, double-edge, opens the mouth of 

the bird and cuts the roof of the duckling's mouth inside, 

How to Kill making a cut of considerable depth so as to sever all 

the blood passages. 

Then he stuns the duckling by striking it with a club. This club 
is generally about eighteen inches long and not too heavy. Part of a 
wagon stake or a hoe handle answers very well. The bird is struck a 
good sharp blow so as to make it insensible. One blow is all that is neces- 




Knife Used in Picking 



This knife is seven and one-hall inches long overall. The blade is three and 
three-quarters inches long, and three-quarters of an inch wide. It must be of good 
steel so that a razor edge can be kept on it. Each professional duck picker has 
from half a dozen to two dozen of these knives, and it is an important part of his 
business to keep them sharp. 




Sticking Knife 

The duckling is killed with this knife. The blade is six inches long and one 
inch wide. The whole knife, handle and all, is ten and three-quarters inches long. 
The back should be groun 1 and sharpened two inches down from the point, as well 
as the front edge, and the point should be kept sharp. 



DUCK DOLLARS ' 63 

sary, although some pickers less skilful than others strike the duckling 
two or three times. The blow is aimed directly upon the top of the 
head with the club. The skull is not smashed. 

The bird is stunned immediately after sticking so that the blood will 
run better. 

While the duckling is bleeding, the picker goes immediately to his 
chair beside the feather box, sits and begins picking. The duckling is 
cooling now, and when the temperature of the blood g^ jj^^j^g ^^ 
gets below ninety-eight degrees it congeals and stops 
running out of the duckling. The picker's feather box 
is about level with his knees so that he can drop the feathers easily off 
the duckling into the box as he picks them. He holds the head of the 
duckling between one knee and the box to prevent its fluttering and 
soiling the feathers with blood. There is a pail of water suspended from 
a wire directly over the feather box and the picker frequently wets hts 
hand in this pail. This water causes the feathers to stick to his hand, 
which also gives him a grip or purchase on them so that he can pluck 
them out without much effort. The wing and tail and other coarse 
feathers are thrown out, as they are too hard and rough. The picker 
works by making a sharp jerk in the opposite direction from which the 
feathers lie, the skin meanwhile being drawn by the other hand so that 
it is tight. If very tender, the skin at the roots of the feathers is held 
between the fingers, and the feathers are pulled out „. . . „ 
straight, a few at a time. The pm-feathers are wet to pj^^.p^^jhers 
cause them to stick to the hand, and are then caught 
between the thumb and the blade of the knife held in the right hand. 

This knife is an important item to the picker. Each picker has 
from a half-dozen to two dozen of these knives, and he sharpens them 
at noon or after work, so that his working hours are not used up in the 
sharpening. We illustrate the style of knife used by the pickers. The 
blade is good steel. It is ground and honed, then stropped on the ordi- 
nary razor strop. Each picker has one of these leather razor strops 
hanging beside him from the feather box. The knife is kept as sharp 
as a razor, for part of the bird really must be shaved to make a clean 
picking job. 

The pickers make from $20 to $30 a week, in some cases more. It 
is all piece work. They get so much for every duckling. When their 
price is five cents for every duckling, the feathers pay p^^^^j^g^g p^y 
for the picking. Some pickers demand eight cents a ^^^ picking 
duckling. It is money well earned, and the weekly wages 
they make are not too much, as a degree of skill is required. It is a 
real trade. 

Old clothes should be worn in picking. The professional picker 
takes ofT all his clothes before beginning work in the morning, puts on 
an old shirt and a pair of full-length overalls which are white to begin. 
They are first oiled with raw linseed-oil and left outdoors in the sun to 
dry for a week, then they are given a coat of linseed-oil and varniSa. 
This makes the overalls moisture proof. They are generally worn by the 
picker until worn out. They are never washed. They are hard and stiflf 
— like armor plate. 



64 DUCK DOLLARS 

Lime in In the picking room there should be a barrel or box 

Picking of lime, air-slaking. This air-slaked lime is sprinkled 

Room around the picking room on the blood on the floor, to 

keep the place sweet. 

The picker who makes a slip and cuts the skin of the duckling, or 
rips it, must sew it up. For this purpose each picker has a needle and 
a spool of thread, and if he makes a cut or rip he quickly sews it. When 
he has done this it is almost impossible to find the place. 

The professional picker generally strops his knife by turning it on 
the strop on the edge, not on the back, as a razor is stropped. How- 
ever, each man has his own way of keeping his knives sharp. 

. A good picker should pick from forty to fifty ducks 

' ^ in a day. More than fifty a day is above the ordinary. 

^ Often a skilful picker is found who will average sixty- 

a Day r , 

five a day. 

Each picker has a counter or tally device like a baseball umpire's 
counter, and as he finishes a bird he turns the counter. 

He puts the bird, when he is done with it, into a tank filled with 
water. This tank is made with compartments, eight or ten of them. 
Each picker has his own compartment for the birds 
VVasnmg e ^yj-ij^j^ \-^q picks, so that his work can be checked by the 
arcass foreman. The foreman, who is generally the man who 

ties up the birds and carries them forward to the shipping boxes, takes 
the birds one at a time from the picker's tank and washes them to get 
the blood off, and the dirt off the feet. The washing is done in an 
ordinary pail. It is finished in cleaner water in a second pail. The fore- 
man then puts the duckling into another tub of water, not ice-water, 
but ordinary faucet or spring water, to get the animal heat entirely out 
of the carcass. This saves ice when the ice is used later on in the process. 
The foreman then ties up the bird, and this is an interesting process, 
as it makes a handsome, compact duckling. There are one or two 
details about this work of tying which should be noted 
How to Tie carefully. The head of the duckling is bent around and 
up a uc j^^^j^ ^^^ p^^^ under the wing. A trade-marked tape is 

then passed around the entire bird at the middle of the body and a 
common hard knot made at the wing. The feet are allowed to stick 
straight out. The tape confines the head and wings. A forming box 
or press such as is Sometimes used in tying fowls is not necessary for 
ducklings. The operator works on top of a table with 
ra e- j^j^ hands alone. If string instead of tape is used, the 

^^^ string should not be fine, like harness thread, for 

instance. Such fine string or thread, although it may be strong, will 
prove a nuisance because it will cut the fingers of the operator. The 
string should be a good-sized white kind which can be handled easily and 
rapidly by wet fingers without cutting them. After the knot has been 
made the operator cuts the string with his picking knife. Be sure that 
the knot is on the side at or below the wing. Ducklings 
How Not to ^j.g qI^q^ sgg^ ij^ tj^g markets with the knot of their tying 
^ string directly over the center of the breast, just the 



DUCK DOLLARS 65 

place where it ought not to be, because there it looks slovenly, and spoils 
the appearance of the birds. 

This string sinks into the flesh and is almost out of sight and hardly 
shows when the flesh is soft and wet. 

When the operator starts to tie up the duckling, it is lying on the 
board, breast up. He grasps the head in his right hand, swings it 
around to the right and puts it between the wing and that side of the 
body. The duckling after tying is put into one of the refrigerator tanks. 
Each tank is a convenient size, about six or eight feet 

L lie 

long, three or four feet wide and three :o four feet deep. . 

^, r ■ • 1 J r \7 1 Refrigerator 

These refrigerating tanks are made of common Yankee 

pine, or they can be made of cypress, or any wood suit- 
able to hold water. If you give these tanks a good coating of paint 
inside you will find that they will wash out much quicker and better, 
and will not become slimy like an unpainted tank. Water is first put 
into the tank to about one-half the depth, then the ducklings are put in. 
As a rule the birds float in the water. Once in a while a carCass will 
be found which will sink. As more and more ducks are put in, they 
press down those already in the tank. The ice of course floats on top 
of the water. The duck is allowed to stay in the tank of ice-water until 
shipping time, which is generally from twelve to twenty hours later. 
The object of the ice-water is to plump the flesh and condition it. The 
water also adds slightly to the weight of the duck. 

The ducklings should be plumped in the ice-water "Plump 

over night and shipped the following day as the trains Them " over 

Night 
run. 

The ducklings are shipped to market by express (not freight), either 

in boxes or barrels. We use boxes in shipping by 

T. t 1 . xi ^- u 1 What to 

express to the Boston market and get the empties back . 

free. We used barrels when we shipped to the New 

York market, because then the shipments were handled by two express 

companies, and we could not get back the empty boxes at a cheap rate. 

The shipping box we use is a substantial affair. A light, fragile box 
would not answer. The box holds twenty-four ducklings. Sometimes 
twenty-six will go in. 

The inside measurements of the shipping box are twenty-four inches 
long, fifteen inches wide, fourteen inches deep. It is built of one-inch 
pine. Better and lighter wood can be found in various sections of the 
United States. The cover of the box is not on hinges, but is bolted on 
with two bolts, one at each end of the cover in the middle. These boxes 
are used over and over again until they are worn out. They last for four 
or five years. The common or merchandise rate is charged by the inter- 
state express companies for taking the killed ducklings in these boxes to 
market. For the ordinary express-train journey of six 
or seven hours or less, no ice is used. If the breeder 
is shipping long distances, ice should be packed in the - 

box along with the birds. There is practically no limit 
to distance which killed ducklings can be shipped, as the 
markets are located in America, if the shipper packs correctly. 



66 DUCK DOLLARS 

Before putting the ducklings into the shipping box the box should 

be lined with brown paper. We do not mean that this paper should be 

tacked in. We have a supply of brown paper such as grocers use, the 

sheet being long enough to go across the box. We put a sheet on the 

bottom of the box which covers one side, then another 

1 ing e sheet, then a third sheet on top of the ducks after they 

ipp'ng ox j^3Yg been put in. This brown paper prevents the ducks 

from coming in contact with the wood, which may be dirty. It keeps 

them clean, and the interior of the box has a sweet, clean look when 

opened. 

Shipping boxes like these should be used by anybody shipping to his 
market when he gets the empties back free. If the empties are not to be 
returned free, barrels can be used, as we used them in shipping to New 
York city. We used sugar and flour barrels. They cost us eighteen 
cents empty. A sugar barrel will hold from forty-five to fifty ducklings. 
We do not head the barrel, but lay the paper in, then the ducklings, and 
on top of the barrel we stretch a piece of burlap, tacking it around the 
top of the barrel. A flour barrel holds from thirty-two to thirty-five 
ducklings. 

Sometimes an expressman, if he is green at handling these duck 

barrels, will turn one over and stand it on its head instead of on its 

bottom. This jams the top layer of ducklings, but does not spoil them. 

In the summer we put ice in the barrel. The ice melts, 

* ^ "^ as it should, because poultry keep better with cold 

water sprinkling over and around them than they do 

with only ice on them. The water collects in the barrel, and if the 

expressman turns the barrel over it will run out and annoy him. The 

best way is to use boxes and not barrels if you are located so you can. 

The New York market is a very strong one. People who do busi- 
ness in New York and live out in the country, if they want to raise 
_ ducks need not fear for the market. That city will take 
,,.,,."' an unlimited quantity of anything in the poultry line. 
The same is true in a smaller proportion of any other 
city in America or Canada. Wherever people are gathered together 
there is a lot of eating going on, and anything in the poultry line is 
absorbed naturally as a sponge takes up water. 

We never use ice in shipping ducklings to Boston. The dealers give 
us fair weight. We have never had any trouble with any marketman 
on ducklings. We have a set of scales in the shipping room, and we get 
the net weight of every box as it is made up. We allow for shrinkage 
in the dressed ducklings, and are able to hit it exactly right after experi- 
ence. First we let the carcass drain for five minutes before putting it into 
The the box. We squeeze it with our hands to get as much 

Shrinkage water out as possible. For every loo pounds net weight 

in Shipment of ducklings there will be a shrinkage in going to market 
of three or four per cent. That is to say, when a marketman weighs 
them and pays according to his weight, he will return to you a weight 
of ninety-six or ninety-seven pounds to every loo pounds which you 
weighed. 

Prepay the express charges when shipping ducklings to market. 



DUCK DOLLARS ^ dy 

This ends the matter. See them weighed yourself at your depot, pay 
your own agent and he will give you a receipt. He is a 
friend of yours and he will weigh them correctly. If ""^P^y 
you let the shipment go forward to the city, express „, 
charges collect, you never know exactly whether the 
charges are figured properly at the other end. The expressman who 
does the weighing at the city end may be a new boy, just entered the 
employ of the company. The delivery-sheet writer may make an error. 
By the time the box gets to the marketman there may be an excessive 
charge. It is not for the interest of the marketman to question the 
charge, because it does not come out of him, but out of you. He will 
sign the driver's sheet as quickly as possible, pay the charges, and that 
ends the matter except when he bills it up to you; and you have to stand 
for them, unless you wish to go through the red tape and delay of getting 
a rebate. For these reasons we say to you emphatically, always prepay 
your shipments. 

The question is often asked, How long a distance can killed dacklings 
be successfully shipped to market? Even breeders who live in the West 
sometimes want to ship to New York. It is hard to Long 
answer this question in positive terms; it depends on the Distance 
season, on the man who is doing the shipping, on the Shipments 
express company which is handling the shipment and on the promptness 
with which the shipment is picked up at destination. As a rule, we would 
say that a distance of 400 or 500 miles, such as from Buffalo to New 
York city, is all right. Meats and poultry are sold cheaper in Chicago 
than in the eastern cities. 

In choosing a commission man or marketman, it is a good idea first 
to make him your friend. Tell him what you are going to produce. 
Write him or see him. Talk to him in a friendly v/ay. n a 

Do not look upon him as an enemy. Do not change ,, . 
around from one dealer to another. When you have 
found a good man and got him acquainted with you and your duckling^s. 
stick to him. His customers will praise your ducklings; they will tell 
him they are fine. He will write to you and say he is pleased with 
them. His trade in them will grow, and he wants it to grow because 
he will make more money. Let him push your goods. Stick to him 
and he will stick to you, if he is any kind of a man. If you change 
around from one dealer to another, they will not take the interest i:i 
your ducklings if they know that some other man will get the next lot 
of them. 

The whole duckling is not picked. The wing is picked up to the 
first joint. The neck is picked half way up to the head. The duckling 
is not opened or drawn. You must not take out the p- 1, 

insides of a duckling before shipping. The birds will 
not keep nearly so well. They will begin to mold on ^ 

the inside with the slightest delay. The raarketmen want them undrawn, 
and that is the way you always should ship them. The birds are drawn 
by the marketman when he sells them to the customer, or the customer 
cleans them at his or her home, hotel or restaurant, or wherever the 
cooking is done. 




Duik. Picker ;U Work 



DUCK DOLLARS 69 

The killing and picking of ducklings can be avoided entirely by 
shipping them alive. Many small breeders never ship any ducklings 
killed, but always alive. There are poultry gatherers 
everywhere who go about in wagons picking up live C.,- 

poultry. You will find their advertisements in the 
papers, asking you to write or telephone them, then 
they will call and get what you have. These gatherers take their goods 
off to the marketmen to be killed and picked. In some cases they do 
the killing and picking themselves. 

Some marketmen will take the ducklings alive. Write and find out 
whether the marketman to whom you propose to ship will take the duck- 
lings alive. 

The Hebrew and the Chinese trade in the large cities consumes large 
quantities of ducklings. They wish them alive as a rule. 
Fowls h^ve to be killed in a certain wav to conform to ,, , 
the Hebrew religion. An excellent trade in live duck- 
lings can be vi'orked up with Hebrews and the Chinese. 

Ducklings sold killed or alive straight to the consumer bring the 
money which the commission man or dealer gets. A trade of this kind 
is worth working up, for the greater profits in it. 

Breeders are shipping ducklings to New York, Philadelphia and 
other markets outside of New England, which have been scalded and 
picked. When a duck is scalded before picking, the feathers come off 
much easier. Not over five cents is paid for picking a scalded picked 
duck, because it is much easier work. The tail feathers are left on. 

A dry-picked duck in any of the eastern markets is always called a 
Boston duckling. 

Many city markets see nothing but scalded ducks. The process of 
scalding is, first to immerse the duckling in a wash-boiler of water that 
has just come to a boil. The water must not be hotter 
than this. The duckling is held by the head and feet for ^^ 

half a minute in the water, then the feathers are immedi- 
ately picked off. It is quite common for women who have a few^ ducks, 
and ship only a few at a time, to scald them before picking. 

To show you the present condition of the New York market with 
regard to scalded ducks and dry-picked ducklings, it is 
true that for every too ducks marketed in New York . ■^' 

city ninety-five have been picked after scalding. It is 
more trouble to dry pick then> in the manner we have 
told under " Killing, Picking, Shipping." 

Some picking is done before killing, generally in mid-summer when 
the feathers come out easier. This is a cruel practice which hurts the 
birds, and we do not think it ought to be done. 

We once had a man in our employ who claimed to be able to kill 
a duckling so that the feathers would come off easier. His theory was 
that he had found a certain spot in the brain of the duckling which when 
"he ran his killing knife into it affected the nerves of the whole body of 
the duckling, so that the feathers were, as it were, released by the duck- 
ling. This seems silly to read, but it is a fact that this picker got his 
feathers off more quickly than his fellows. He always ran the knife into 



70 



DUCK DOLLARS 




Ready for Shipping 

Ducklings killed, picked and ready for packing and shipping. The string 
which confines the head under the wing has not yet been passed around over the 
breast and tied. Observe the large frame, full breast and general plumpness of 
these birds. When the photographer took the above picture, the ducks were 
lying on a horizontal table and the camera was six feet distant, higher than the 
table. The result is, that the three ducks on the inside (or bottom) row appear 
larger than the four behind (being nearer the camera). They all, however, 
were about the same size and weight, with the exception of the two at the left 
of the lower row, which were exceptionally big. 

These ducklings sell readily on their good looks and their delicious taste. 
Their plump, white flesh and trim appearance make them marked objects in 
any poultry or general market display. 

The ducklings in the picture were eleven weeks old when killed and weighed 
sixteen pounds to the pair. 



the brain of the duckling from a peculiar angle. We do not vouch for 
the value of this information, but simply print it as a bit of gossip of the 
pickers. 

Ducklings about to be killed should have their last food at night so 
that their food passage is empty when killed the next day. They can 
The Last ^^ given plenty of water to drink before killing, but 

Feed if the food passage is filled with grain when the bird is 

for Ducklings killed, this grain will ferment, sour, turn green and spoil 
the flesh. If by mischance a duckling is killed which has eaten and filled 
the food passage with grain, the neck should be squeezed and the grain 
washed out through the mouth before shipment. 



DUCK DOLLARS ' 71 

The ducklings do not lose weight between their last feeding and 
killing time provided they have all the water they want to drink. 

A large- plant will kill and ship on an average 200 ducklings a day, 
when busiest 400 a day. An average of 350 to 375 a day will keep nine 
pickers at work. 

Every twelve ducks will give up a pound of feathers, worth on an 
average forty-five cents. This price may vary in different parts of the 
country. We have been getting fifty cents a pound in 
late years— more than ever before. There are feather Value of the 
buyers everywhere. Their advertisements may be seen Feathers 
in many journals. 

The feathers are taken from the picking room several times a day 
and put in the feather loft. We throw them on the floor of the loft and 
stir them up with a pitchfork once a day for three or 
four days. By that time they are dried at the roots and ^^^P ^^^ 
can be pushed together into a pile to make room for new leathers Cool 
feathers from the picking room. Turn the pile over with a picchfork 
once a week. The idea is to get the feathers loose. Do not let them 
pack up and get heated, and ferment. 

To ship the feathers to market, use bags made of white cotton cloth. 
Formerly we made the bags at our own expense, then we found out 
that the feather men, if we asked them, would send us the bags, so we 
got rid of this expense. Write to your feather man; tell him what you 
have, and he will send you the bags. A feather bag is 
generally six feet long and two and one-half feet wide. ^^^ *** ^*^'P 
The feathers are packed into it tightly by hand. Sew up ^^^t^^^rs 
the top of the bag with string. The weight of a bag packed properly 




Pen of Ducklings on Dirt Run a Week Previous to Killing 



DUCK DOLLARS Ji 

should be seventy-five to lOO pounds. It takes t\vent\- to thirty minutes to 
stuff a bag. A bag may be filled easiest when it is suspended beneath a 
hole which has been cut in the floor of the loft. The feathers are then 
pushed, packed or shovelled in more easily than if picked up by handfuls. 

The feathers have a little odor when shipped. The feather man takes 
off. this odor by using first a steam renovator which dries the feathers 
and kills all the animal germs in them with superheated 
steam which is very dry. The feathers are then put Separating 
through a blowing machine, which separates the down. ^ '^^^ 
The feather men get more money for this down than they do for the 
feathers. 

These feathers are used to make bed and sofa pillows and all kinds 
of pillows. They are also used to make beds, especially for foreigners 
from Europe, where feather-beds are much more in use than in this 
country. There is quite a trade in these feather-beds, old-fashioned as 
they are. The demand for feathers for pillows never lets up. 

Markets 

The best way to find out how the market stands is to ask the com- 
mission man or dealer for what he is selling ducklings. Don't tell him 
you have, or may have, some to sell. Ask to buy some. 
Then you will learn the real facts about the market. ^**^ **^ .^'"'^ 
With that information in hand, see the dealer and tell ^"""^ Prices 
him you will sell ducklings at that price, less his commission. To find 
out the true prices, anywhere, always ask to buy, and never to sell. Then 
make your own selling price so as to give both you and the dealer a fair 
profit. 

There is considerable foolishness in the commission business in this 
way. Some of the commission men claim to be handling farm produce 
on purely a commission basis, returning to the shipper the full price 
received, less ten per cent, commission. This is not always true. They 
are not satisfied with ten per cent, profit. They buy as low as they can 
and take ten per cent, off that, then they sell for what they can get. 
and this selling price represents a profit of from thirty to loo per cent. 

In various sections of the country where we have customers, we 
have written to commission men and poultry dealers (whose names we 
could learn in no other way than by looking in city directories), in order 
to find out what they would pay for ducks. We have done this at remote 
points, as we had plenty of knowledge as to the immensity of the big 
city markets. 

We have always found by such inquiries that ducks are sellers every- 
where, and we know that ducklings bred from our stock would go like 
wild-fire anywhere. 

We recall one customer in the vicinity of Atlanta, Georgia. In 

writing to the wholesale dealers there, in October, 

when prices for ducklings are the lowest of the vear, 

,.,,,. ,. " Atlanta 

we received the following rephes : 

I. "We are selling now old ducks that dress fat for sixteen to 

eighteen cents a pound, and this demand will continue throughout the 



DUCK DOLLARS 75 

poultry season. We could place stock of your quality to the extent of 
800 to 1,000 pounds a week." 

2. " Ducks such as you breed usually sell here at sixteen to eighteen 
cents a pound. Our market prefers scalded stock. However, dry- 
picked stock keeps longer and better and can be sold all right. Poultry 
is sold here with heads and feet on, undrawn. Crops must either be 
empty or drawn. We will be glad to serve you." 

In the winter-time, throughout the South, the hunters bring in 
to the markets wild ducks and sell them to the dealers for forty cents a 
pair. These ducks, small, skinny and rank-tasting as they are, sell 
readily to families. Tame ducklings bred from our stock would be a 
revelation to Southerners accustomed to eating the fishy, small wild 
ducks. Many of the southern dealers wish the tame ducklings shipped to 
them alive. 

It will surprise western people to learn that ducklings are shipped to 
the New York market from as far west as Iowa. We are in receipt of 
a letter from H. S. Webber, Iowa, stating that the duck breeders there 
are shipping to New York steadily. It is Mr. Webber's opinion that he 
could ship a great many more ducklings to the New York market pro- 
vided they were the equal of the ducklings now being marketed in New 
York. Duck food is cheap in Iowa and the whole 
Middle West, so much cheaper than "in the East that the ^^^ West 
express on the killed ducklings from the Central States ^^" Supply 
to New York would not amount to much in comparison. ^^^ York 

Six or seven years ago, the farmers in Illinois and other neighboring 
states received only six and seven cents a pound for their ducks, alive. 
Now they receive twelve and thirteen cents a pound, live weight. Con- 
sumers in the West have found out the fine quality and flavor of prop- 
erly raised ducks. That is one reason why prices have increased as 
they have in the East the past few years. 

Ducklings are handled by the Iowa dealers both alive and dressed. 

In Minnesota and Wisconsin the duck markets are very good. 

The markets in San Francisco and other cities on the Pacific coast 
are great ones for ducks, and big money is going to be made there by 
duck breeders. The people on the West coast spend their money freely 
and have the best of everything for their tables. 

The beef wholesalers handle an enormous quantity of poultry. We 
have the following letter from a leading one in Chicago : 

" We are at all times in the market for fancy ducks. There is no 
limit to the quantity we could use." 

What is true of the above firm with regard to the demand for ducks 
is also true of the others of the great beef wholesalers. 

The best ducklings now in the Chicago and St. Louis and surround- 
ing markets are shipped there from New York. Anybody getting in 
now with good ducks in the Central States, and shipping to Chicago and 
the other cities there, will have abundant cause for congratulation. 

New York and Boston will take all the ducklings offered at what are 
now the highest prices in America. Those of our customers who raise 
ducklings in New England, and in New York, Pennsylvania and other 



76 



DUCK DOLLARS 




FatteninK Shed and Pens 

As shown, the shed is oj^en on both sides, giving plenty of fiesh air at 
all times. It is simply a shelter from the sun, for the ducklings whieh are 
being fattened for market do not mind the rain at this age. The roof is not 
shingled. The cracks between the boards are covered with two-inch strip- 
ping. (No roofing paper here.) 

The yards are separated by wire netting, but under the shed boards are 
used. The feed boards and water-pails are shown in the yards. The pails are near 
the food boards so that tie ducklings can waddle quickly from food to dr nk 
and Ijack again. 



A Question 
of Finding 
Epicures 



states within shipping distance of New York and F^oston. are more 

favored than those in remote states, but the day of the latter is coining. 

There is not a place where ducklings cannot be raised and sold at 

the same profit we make here in the East, because it is 

all a question of finding men, women and children who 

lik*^ table delicacies. These people live around every 

market. Ducklings are as salable as anything eatable 

they buy. 

Lake, ocean and river steamers, dining cars on all railrtiads, hotel 
and restaurants everywhere, clubs, etc., all want good ducklings. Sell 
to them direct if you can, and make the fifty to loo per cent, profit which 
a middleman will make if you sell to him first. 

Coinmission men, poultry dealers, hotels, etc., are pestered con- 
tinually with letters from poultry experimenters and dreainers. Most 
of them pay no attention to letters written by curiosity seekers and 
'hrow them into the w-aste-basket. They are always interested to talk 
lusiness with anybody who actually has poultry to sell, and proves it 



DUCK DOLLARS 77 

by his letter. Anybody who starts off on a campaign of letter-writing 
or walking .tour of investigation as to whether ducklings are salable, 
and at what prices, would better, as we have suggested before, inquire 
for what he can buy them. Let the dealers come to you. when you have 
the ducklings ready. If you are breeding the right ducklings, they will 
drum you for the cliance to sell them. It is all under your control. 

Make a start, turn out the ducklings and begin learning the markets 
as well as other details by actual practice. An ounce of this practice, this 
actual handling of the business, is worth a ton of theorizing. The sub- 
ject takes on a near and real aspect. We have had cus- 
tomers write four-page letters for weeks asking full ^ '"^ 
details about size of shipping boxes, locations of mar- * ^ c ua 
kets, names of marketmen who would take 100 duck- 
lings a day, etc., fearing that should they embark in the industry 
they would flood their nearest city with ducklings which would be 
a drug in the market — and all the while these beginners did not have 
even a trio of ducks; their fears existed on paper only. Anybody who 
can entertain doubts that ducklings and other poultry can be sold profit- 
ably when raised, has not intelligence enough to succeed in poultry rais- 
ing. Such people should face at the start the fact that they are unfitted 
for business on their own hook, and should keep on working for others 
more resourceful and more enterprising. It is weak and pitiful, when 
a man, presumably intelligent and at the age of discretion, will write 
and say : " I live in a small place 200 miles from any city, and I don't 
think I can market ducklings if I raise them, or make any money 
with them; do you believe I can?" What can be said to such a man 
to convince him? Can anything be said briefly? Hardly. Such a man 
must be educated from the beginning. He has no imagination. He 
cannot conceive that there are people who like to have good things from 
day to day on their dinner tables; city people, and country people, too, 
not only the wealthy ones, but the comfortably well-off. who are search- 
ing for nice, appetizing food to eat all the time. Never having been in 
a great city market, he does not realize that tons and tons of ducklings 
and carloads of chickens and eggs melt away there every day like dew 
in the morning sun. We speak of this subject emphatically because it 
is an exasperating experience to receive a letter from a 

beginner expressing doubts as to the markets, and fears 

IVIarkct 
that he will flood his nearest market, once he starts. 

Such letter-writers almost invariably state their alarm ^ 

that the whole country soon will be raising ducks, and that ducks will 

drop in value to nothing. 

Another doubt of beginners is that they cannot sell ducklings except 

cheaply to commis ion men and dealers. Why should a duck breeder 

'^ell to a commission man or dealer, if he does not wish to? The selling 

of his product is always under the control of the breeder. He can sell 

to whom he pleases and is not obliged to take the first offer. We have 

always sold to commission men and dealers and made a good profit: 

but we have been well aware all the time that we could have made more 

monev selling over their heads direct. Some dealers and commission 



78 DUCK DOLLARS 

men will not pay what ducklings are worth if they find they can impose 
on the breeder, or keep him in ignorance of the market. 

As a rule, most of the poultry markets in the United States and 
Canada do not know yet what a good duck is. There is a splendid open- 
ing everywhere for breeders with the right birds. Get into your nearest 
market, capture your share of it and get the good prices which your 
ducklings will bring. 

What is known among epicures as a canvasback duck is a wild duck 
from the breeding grounds of Chesapeake Bay. They live largely on the 
wild celery which grows there. They weigh eight pounds to the pair. 
They are much prized by many diners on account of their peculiar flavor 
due to the wild celery, and are worth about $5 a pair in the markets. 

Most of the dealers know only the common or puddle duck, weigh- 
ing three or four pounds when full grown. At three months they weigh 
only between three and four pounds. The eggs are small and greenish 
in color. The Pekin eggs are large and white. It takes the whole sum- 
mer for the puddle duck to mature. Compared to our Pekin ducklings 
they look like a sparrow alongside of a chicken. 

It is not uncommon to see in the markets small, thin, bruised, half- 
fattened, half-picked ducks. Many of them have bloody bills and their 
feet are dirty with caked manure and mud. Avoid sending to market 
anything in that class. Open a box of our ducklings and you see first 
the brown paper, a good introduction to the contents, 
. then the contents themselves, clean of bill and feet, white 

and plump, something good which whets the appetite 
and makes one long for possession. Ducklings properly 
marketed give the bu3'er a good impression. 

The red-head duck (wild) is thought to be good eating in some 
sections, Maine for example. A friend of ours killed a red-head down 
in Maine which weighed four pounds. Three trout were found in her 
gullet. She was roasted with all skill at command, but tasted oily and 
fishy, and was a disappointment. 

If you actually go into the Boston and New York markets in the 
spring and try to buy ducklings, thirty to thirty-five cents a pound is 
what you have to pay. Some reporters for the newspapers, when they 
set out to write a market article, announce themselves as reporters, and 
ask the dealers what prices they will put into the papers. The dealers 




Shelter Roof for Ducks on the Range 



DUCK DOLLARS 79 

naturally talk low prices so as not to frighten off the buying public from 
their stalls. Other reporters go on an imaginary shopping tour, asking 
the dealers, without disclosing their identity, just what they will take for 
this and that, and in such a way they get the true market prices. It all 
depends on the reporter who does it. 

Some dealers in New York wish ducklings alive, others killed; some 
dry-picked, others scalded and picked. The best way to ship our duck- 
lings is dry-picked, and if you ship them that way even to dealers who 
say they are now getting ducklings scalded, they will be better pleased. 
They talk and write as they do, in some cases, because they have had no 
experience with dry-picked ducklings. You must inform the dealer 
what you can do, get his instructions and make recommendations to 
him as well as listen to his recommendations. 



Question Box 

Q. — You say that when you are picking the ducklings, after sticking, 
you hold the head between your knees. I don't see how you can get the 
feathers off if you do that. I have tried it and the bird flops around and 
I have difficulty in getting the feathers oft'. A. — Please read the remarks 
on picking again. We do not write there what you say we do. We tell 
you to hold the head of the bird between one knee and the feather box. 
This leaves the body in your lap, where you can turn it around to suit 
yourself as you pick it. You hold the head tightly against the box and 
this prevents the bird from flopping around and soiling its feathers and 
body with blood. Sit in a chair while you pick. 

Q. — My ducklings have a yellow tinge to their flesh when I ship 
them. What is there in the food which causes this? A. — This is caused 
by allowing the ducklings to lie on green grass before you kill them. 
You must take them off the grass range one week or so before 
you kill them, and put them on to dirt. The yellow color seems to go 
through the feathers to the skin. 

Q. — My flock appear restless at times during the night and do not 
always go to bed and sleep. This worries me a good deal. Do you 
think they are sick? A. — They do not act like most animals when night 
comes. It is perfectly natural for them to be restless at times and move 
about more or less. During the day they like to sit motionless at times 
with heads under the wing. 

Q. — My marketman says to scald the ducklings before taking off the 
feathers. Now, why can't I put the whole bird right down all over into 
my wash-boiler? You say to hold the bird by head and feet and scald 
only the body. A. — Do not scald the bill and feet because if you do you 
will discolor them. You also will take the feathers off the head. This 
you must not do. The feathers are left on the head. 

Q. — I am going to grow celery and feed it to my ducklings and get 
a higher price for the birds. Why don't you do it? A. — That is a fool- 
ish idea. It is true that wild ducks which feed on wild celery bring bet- 
ter prices because of the improved flavor, but if you raise celery in a 
garden, you can get ten times more money for it as it grows than in the 



So DUCK DO I. LARS 

form of diick-meat flavor. It is expensive flavoring. It is also a failure 
as flavoring, because a celery-fed domestic duck does not taste anything 
like the wild canvasback duck fed on wild celery, and cannot be substi- 
tuted for the canvasbacks. A big, grain-fed duckling is better eating 
than a canvasback, and will bring as high a price when people get better 
acquainted with it. Canvasbacks are sold at high prices because they 
arc comparatively scarce, and because for years fancy caters have been 
in the habit of payin.g high prices for them. The demand has been culti- 
vated by restaurants and hotels along with the terrapin and champagne 
demand. 

Q. — It seems to me strange, if there is so much money in ducks as 
you say, that instead of marketing 45.000 or 50,000 a year as you have 
done, you have not marketed 100,000 or even 200,000 a year, and got rich 
much (luicker. If your figures are correct, and the work, as it seems to 
me, is only a ([uestion of hired help, why have j'ou not pushed the busi- 
ness harder? I am of good business ability, and I see no reason why I 
cannot accomplish in five years what might otherwise take twenty. Please 
advise me. A. — Go slowl}'. If you have been " figuring." tear up the 
paper and listen to reason. Is not experience worth accpiiring? If 
ducks could be turned out like bricks from a machine, it would be 
necessary only to speed up the machinery and work day and night. But 
they are living things and have to be nourished and cared for. A 
man is busy and has quite a good job on hand when he is shipping i.ooo 
ducklings a week to market, making a net profit of $500 a week on 
them. If one ships 100.000 ducklings a year to market, he must erect 
more buildings, emplo_\' more help and be busier. To make a success, a 
man must keep things under his ccMitrol. Don't bite ofi:' more than 
you can chew. What is the use of trying to do three years' work and 
make three years' profits in one year? People who deny themselves 
every pleasure but money-making find that when they are ready to stop 
work and enjoy their fortune they have made a mistake. We have 
known poultry beginners, fanciful dreamers, to start with a plant costing 
as high as $5,000 with 1,500 head of birds, and the stories of their failures 
were blazoned all over their districts. Start small, and then an 
occasional mistake is not going to put one out of the business. An error 
can be corrected, and the lesson having been learned the error will not 
be repeated. There is positively no " out " about the duck business 
which will bring ruin. One man may not make so much money as 
another; that is to be expected. It is a ([uestion of starting with the right 
stock, following the right teachings and acquiring skill, experience and 
capacity, according to the individual. 

Q. — In my state (Texas) there do not seem to be any ducks like 
yours, and people with whom I talk do not think there would be any sale 
for them. A. — Texas folks like chickens, or beefsteaks. You don't live 
on cereals altogether, down your way. any more than we do. You have 
a clear field ;md. take our word for it, Texans will buy good ducklings, 
])ay your price, and come back to you for more. 

Q. — If these ducklings are such exceptional eating, as you state, why 
can't I get up an attractive little l)ooklet and circular and mail them 
around and get a list of steadv l)uvers that wav? ./. — You can, and vou 



DUCK DOLLARS 8i 

ought to; that is just the way the finest eggs, poultry, butter, etc., are 
sold, at the liighest prices. 

C'. — I dislike the idea of killing the ducklings. Can I sell them 
alive? A. — Yes. There are thousands of poultrymen in the business of 
picking up birds alive from farmers, and marketmen everywhere who 
will take them alive. 

Q. — I do general farming. Do you think I can grow the foods your 
dr.cks eat and do better feeding them to ducks than selling them sepa- 
rately? A. — Yes, you can get much more for them in the form of duck 
meat. If breeders make big profits with ducks by buying everything, 
as we do, those farmers who have to buy only a p^rt of the ration, rais- 
ing the most of it, will make more money. 

Q. — Instead of buying so much food stuff, why don't you raise it on 
your farm? A. — We wish to have our time free for the ducks and do not 
care to be busy at general farming, as we are satisfied with the profit on 
■ducks from feeding bought food. We grow vegetables and green stuff 
for our needs, as that is no trouble. 

'<>. — What is the proper time for killing ducklings? A. — From ten 
weeks to three months of age. Keep them longer and they eat off the 
profits every day. The average farmer or housewife raising ducks for 
amusement by guesswork does not realize that. The age of ten to twelve 
weeks represents the maximum of plumpness and tenderness with the 
minimum of expense. After that age, the plumpness and tenderness 
decrease and the cost of keep is being added to all the time. 

Q. — I read what you say, that worms are fine for ducks and save on 
the grain , bill. Why not raise worms? Is any treatise published on 
propagating worms? Guess you will think I am joking. A. — Don't 
know of any worm guide. Would advise that you try the method seen 
in Belgium, where there is considerable swampy land. It is not uncom- 
mon there to find a duck raiser walking in the swampy land at the head 
of a llock of ducks, his wooden shoes at every stride squeezing out of 
the muck worms which the ducks gobble greedily — a sort of automatic 
self-feeding, non-paying scheme. 

Q. — Is there anything gained by breeding a small duck? A relative 
of mine living near here who did some duck breeding a few years ago 
used to get a good price for small ducklings, and said his dealer sold 
them quicker than bigger ducklings. A. — About ten years ago, some 
hotel and restaurant men in New York went to their duck and poultry 
markets, and said : We don't want you to give us too large a duckling. 
We get a good price now on our bills of fare, and we wish from you 
(so we can make all the money possible) a medium-sized bird. When 
half of a medium-sized bird gets on to the table, it certainly will be large 
enough for one or two people. A whole big duckling is large enough 
for a family dinner. Keep the size down so they will cost us less and 
make us more money." The duck marketmen evidently did not argue 
the matter much. They passed the word along to the breeders in the 
territory south and west of New York, where most of the ducks then 
were being produced, and these breeders, to please their trade, actually 
began to breed for smaller size. Before long they were shipping to 
market ducks weighing not more than four pounds. The result was what 



82 DUCK DOLLARS 

any sensible man could have predicted. The consumers, the men and 
women who ate the duckhngs, complained, and would not order them so 
often at hotels and restaurants. The hotel and restaurant managers soon 
changed their requests to " Give us the big ducklings again." The 
breeders went back to the early methods. They found building up size 
not so easy as pulling down. Qualities cherished and perpetuated by 
years of study and skill had gone. To-day the flocks of these breeders 
are not yet back to a big-sized duckling, but feel the effects of the period 
of stunting. It is safe in poultry breeding to work for the biggest and 
juciest. Anybody in any occupation who trades in an inferior article, 
hoping to make a bigger profit by selling it at the price of something 
better, is not playing fair to himself or to anybody. 

Q. — I live on the seacoast. Is there anything in the air that would 
be prejudicial to the duck industry? A. — Snow does not last long on 
seacoast land, and this is a point in favor of the coast, because the duck- 
lings will get out on the ground earlier in the spring, enjoy more exer- 
cise and do better. There is nothing in salt air or sea breezes unfavor- 
able to ducks. 

Q. — I see you have plenty of windows in your houses. How many 
are advisable? A. — Put in windows freely. Light and sun are good for 
ducklings. When warm weather comes the windows are raised or taken 
out altogether so as to give plenty of free air. 

Q. — My ducks like to play in the muddy and swampy land. Will it 
hurt them? A. — No, it will do them good. You can't keep them out of 
the muck. They will run for it. 

Q. — How shall I get my ducks to lay? A. — Feed them as we tell 
under " Care of Breeding Stock." It is all a matter of food. They 
cannot lay unless they are nourished. If you starve them they will not 
do much for you. 

Q. — My ducklings do not seem very bright. They walked into a hole 
in the field and fell in and could not get out. Some were lamed and 
injured before I got them out. A. — Ducklings are more or less stupid 
and must not be given a chance to fall into holes, or to run against sharp 
obstructions. 

Q. — I have read in poultry books that ground over which fowls run 
becomes tainted and unhealthful in time if something is not done to 
purify it. Is this true of a duck farm? A. — Yes, and that is the reason 
crops of green stuff, like rye, are grown, to sweeten the soil. They do 
it, too, unfailingly. 

Q. — In dressing my first duck for the table, I tried to find the crop, 
to see if there was any food in it, but could not find it. A. — A hen has a 
crop, but a duck has not. The food passage in a duck runs from the 
mouth to the gizzard. 

Q. — I have an incubator for hens' eggs. Can I use it for ducks' eggs? 
A. — Yes. Of course, the ducks' eggs being larger, you cannot put in 
so many. 

Q. — Why is an incubator house built like a cellar? A. — Because it 
will not be freezing cold there in the winter, and in summer it will be 
twelve to eighteen degrees cooler than outdoors (making it a good place 
to keep eggs then). To build an incubator cellar, dig only three feet 



DUCK DOLLARS 83 

deep, and use the dirt to bank up the walls outside. Build the walls of 
stone and cement. Put a roof over it, and a door at the end. Venti- 
late it well. Don't forget the ventilators, because egg-shells are porous. 
Dead air, with a large proportion of carbonic acid gas, and little oxygen, 
will badly influence the ducklings growing in the eggs. 

Q. — Why do you keep ducklings of different ages separate? Why 
not turn all in together, the young and the old? A. — Because the old 
and strong birds would trample on and kill the smallest and weakest 
ones. 

Q. — At what age can ducklings be put outdoors safely? A. — When 
they are six weeks old, rain and cold will not hurt them, and they can be 
left out in their yards all night, unless it is bitter cold and stormy, and 
they will thrive better for it. 

Q. — At what age does a duck begin to lay? A. — When she is from 
four and one-half to five months old. 

Q. — Don't you lose any ducklings after you have hatched them? A. — 
There is a loss of only about two out of every hundred. 

Q. — What h the color of eggs laid by Pekin ducks? A. — White. 

Q. — Can I get along without an incubator? A. — If you try to work 
without an incubator, you must have hens to sit on and hatch the ducks' 
eggs. The ducks are not broody and will not sit on and hatch their 
eggs. Better have an incubator. 

Q. — In case I do use a hen, how many duck eggs shall I put under 
her? A. — Nine under a small hen, and eleven or twelve under a large 
hen. 

Q. — Will a hen brood the young ducklings, or would you provide a 
brooder? A. — Get a brooder. A hen is awkward in brooding ducklings, 
as a rule, injuring some by crushing. 

Q. — How would you advise working up a duck market in a place 
where ducklings are comparatively unknown? A. — Make the prospective 
customer a gift of a duckling and let him or her serve it for dinner. 
He will be won over by the experiment and, we predict, will report to 
you that the dish is ahead of chicken or turkey. Sales will follow as a 
matter of course. This is a good way to get acquainted with a hotel 
or restaurant keeper. 

Q. — Is your system of feeding followed by many? A. — There are 
some breeders of ducks who care more for low cost than they do for 
flavor of meat. They feed fish caught from the ocean or lakes in nets. 
Ducklings fattened on fish taste fishy and their flesh is not fine-grained. 

Q. — Would you advise a woman to go into duck raising? A. — It 
depends on the woman, as it does on the man, also. Some men get 
enthusiastic, and like to figure the money they are going to make, but 
after a while cool oflf and become lazy and indifferent. A woman who 
likes hens and chickens will like ducks. The work is not much different. 
We know of good work done by women raising ducks. Of course 
women should hire help if they run a large duck farm. Some women 
are better fitted for poultry raising than men. 

Q. — What would you advise with regard to the selection of a farm? 
A. — No matter how poor and how cheap the land, the manure from the 
ducks will fertilize it. Land which has a gentle slope, or which is 



84 DUCK DOLLARS 

gravelly, will be drained better tlian low, level land. It ought not to be 
possible for pools of water to form and get stagnant. 

Q. — You say that in the winter-time, to save labor in the morning, 
the food is mixed at night. How do you mix it? .-J. — In mixing the food 
by hand, use a common, ordinary square shovel and a box. The most 
convenient size of box will be found to be six feet long, thirty inches 
wide and two feet deep, set on legs about eighteen inches high, and 
holding thirty-five to forty pailfuls of food. 

Q. — You say that the mark of the sex in the drake is a curl feather 
in the tail. I have some drakes with two curl feathers in the tail. 
A. — Certainly; drakes are seen with two curl feathers in the tail, although 
sometimes one or both are missing. 

Q. — You give some details as to watering. Please give further 
details. .1. — Ducks saved for breeders, and on a grass range, are fed 
twice a day, morning and evening. They should be watered more often 
during the day in warm weather. It is a good plan to keep cool water 
before the breeders all the time. We say on page 31 that they can be 
watered five times a day in addition to the two times at which they are 
fed. We do not mean by this that one should be continually carrying 
water to them, but that the object to be attained is to keep cool water 
before the breeders nearly continuously. 

Q. — On care of breeding stock, you say to feed the mixture as soon 
as it is mixed. Why? A. — During the summer it is a good plan not 
to mix the food until it is needed, as it is apt to get sour. In the winter, 
to save labor in the morning, you can mix at night and have it all ready 
to feed in the morning. 

Q. — Some tell me that the down from ducks can be marketed sepa- 
rately from the feathers. Is this so, and does it pay? A. — The process 
requires special machinery and is not practiced except by feather mer- 
chants and feather renovators. We never heard of a duck breeder sepa- 
rating the down from the feathers. 

Q. — I would thank you if you could give me good directions for 
picking ducks wet, or by scalding, as this is the method followed in 
this section where all of the ducks and poultry are shipped to the New 
York market. .1. — Picking ducks b}' the scalding method is very easy 
after a little practice and experiment. If you are in doubt, go to your 
butcher or poultryman and he will tell you further; and, perhaps, you 
can watch him while he scalds a hen or a duck and picks it. 

Q. — Your feed directions say one pailful is sufficient for thirty ducks. 
Is the size of the pail ten, twelve or sixteen quarts or more? A. — Ten 
quarts. If you use a twelve or fourteen-quart pail, do not fill it to the 
top. 

Q. — Would a good grade of what we term shorts take the place of 
low-grade flour? A. — Yes; flour is used principally to make the feed 
hold together. In details like this, methods of feeding different from ours 
will give profitable results. Use the food materials which you have in 
your state. 

Q. — How few ducks need a light at night? A. — Twenty. The more 
ducks one keeps in a flock, the more noisy and restless they are in the 
dark. 



DUCK DOLLARS 85 

Q. — Please give me the amount of feed necessary for a pen of thirty 
breeding ducks. A. — A ten-quart pailful twice a day. 

Q. — Please tell me the difiference per pound between ducks alive and 
dressed. A. — In the eastern markets, the difiference is four to six cents 
a pound. We mean by this that live ducks sell for four to six cents a 
pound less than dressed ducks. 

Q. — I live within one mile of a city that has a population of 55,000, 
but there is no market there for ducks, so I am going slow and try to 
work up a home trade. A. — You are in error in stating that there is no 
market for ducklings in the city of 55,000 people. They are not sold 
there now, perhaps, because there are no ducklings to be shipped there 
to be offered for sale. You may have been told that there is no market 
there by somebody who has no call for something which does not 
yet exist for him. It rests with you to ship to such a market and create 
the supply. The demand is there waiting for you. You will have to 
show your goods and attract admiration for them, and sell them on 
merit, as everything is sold. There are thousands of families in that 
large city who would eagerly buy delicious ducklings for a change of 
eating, once a week, or oftener; and such people you ought to reach 
by circular, or word of mouth, or by letter, and get them interested. 
They are consuming milk, eggs and poultry now, of course, and it 
rests with you whether they shall consume ducklings. Give a pair of 
ducklings to the leading marketman there, if necessary, and let him 
display them in his stalls to his trade. You will find they will sell, and 
the dealer will ask you for more. If you are the first duck raiser to start 
shipping to that city of 55,000 people, you are lucky, for you can get a 
foothold with your stock quickly, and you need not worry about selling 
all you can turn out. But you must tell and show people what you do. 
Do not be afraid to talk and advertise. If you hide your light under a 
bushel it certainly will not be seen, nor will people go to you inquiring 
for the illumination. 

Q. — I should like to know the cost of erecting a lOO-foot duck house. 
A. — A duck house 100 feet long by fifteen feet wide, covered with roofing 
(which never requires painting) is built in a good, substantial manner 
for about $2.50 per running foot. 

Q. — I wish to ask only one question, and that is, could ducks be 
raised profitably by attending to them in the ordinary way, say with a 
few, giving part of my time to them, as I am employed regularly at 
something else which takes me from home? A. — Certainly, you can 
manage them exactly as a small poultry plant is managed by men who 
work at something else for their main living. 

Q. — How many ducks would I need to supply 100 eggs to fill incuba- 
tors every two weeks? I should wish to run two incubators, one hatch- 
ing two weeks later than the first. A. — Twenty ducks and four drakes 
would be about the proper number. 

Q. — Brewers' grains cost but $3 per ton in New York and make 
excellent feed for cows. Can brewers' grains be fed to ducks and if 
so, with what result? A. — We have had no experience with brewers' 
grains, but see no objection to feeding them in moderate quantities 
mixed with other feeds, say about twenty per cent., and fed to ducks after 
they are six weeks old. 



86 DUCK DOLLARS 

Q. — You say that in selecting breeding birds, other considerations 
besides size need to be considered. What? Please enlarge upon the 
proper selection of breeding stock from a flock. A. — The most impor- 
tant consideration in selecting breeders is contained in three words, 
stamina, vitality and activity. The experienced duck breeder has these 
three features always in mind when making selections. Secondly, size 
and weight are in order, in connection with shape, contour or symmetry. 

Q. — You speak of granite grit, and I should like to learn if that 
is really necessary and distinctly better than other gravel which the birds 
might pick up anywhere. A. — Where only a few ducks are kept, com- 
mon sand or fine gravel may be sufficient. Duck grit, however, is so 
cheap that we use it for our birds and always recommend it. 

Q. — What is the relative proportion of duck eggs needed to fill an 
incubator of 150 hen-egg capacity? You may also give me the figures as 
to geese and turkey eggs. A. — An incubator of the foregoing capacity 
will hold 100 ducks' eggs and seventy-five geese or turkey eggs. No 
matter what the size of your incubator, you can put in it two duck eggs 
for every three hens' eggs. 

Q. — If you were to turn the eggs with cold and clammy hands, would 
it not be apt to chill the embryo at certain stages, and thus impair its 
vitality? I have never noticed any caution in this matter, but it seems 
to me that if one were to come in out of a cold day, and especially with 
low blood circulation which no amount of action or warmth would gen- 
erate, and do the work of turning the eggs, it would not be just the 
thing. Perhaps people with cold hands should don a pair of woolen 
gloves before turning eggs in an incubator, or let some one else do it. 
A. — No danger. You do not pick up the eggs to hold them long enough 
to chill them, no matter if your hands are cold as ice. You turn the 
eggs with the tips of the fingers. Certainly you can wear gloves as a 
preventive if you wish, and your mind will be at ease on this point. We 
warm our hands by holding them up against the heater of the incubator. 

Q. — I can get scraps, meats, etc., from the restaurants and hotels 
here. Would you advise their use at any time after the ducklings are 
six weeks old? A. — Yes, this is an excellent way to obtain feed for the 
ducks. The stale bread could be soaked in water and mixed with regular 
grain with fine results. 

Q. — When we scald a duck, can the feathers be made marketable 
like dry-picked ones? A. — -Yes; the feathers are put very thinly on the 
floor of a room and shaken with a hay-fork every few days until dry, 
then they are pushed upon a heap to make room for more. 

Q. — I have been observing the market quotations here (Iowa) for 
several months, and find they never exceed twelve cents. If the duck- 
lings average six pounds, they would average seventy-two cents. If it 
costs from six to ten cents per pound to raise and market them, I am 
unable to figure out fifty cents profit on each one. A. — The market quo- 
tations you see apply to the commonest or puddle ducks, always about 
a third to a half lower than the quotations on first-class ducklings. They 
generally apply also to old ducks, not to the young and tender dry-picked 
ducklings, with which few markets are acquainted. You cannot learn the 
true market prices by what you see in the papers, as these frequently run 



DUCK DOLLARS 87 

for months without change, and are inspired almost wholly by dealers 
who wish to buy as cheaply as they can. To find out the true prices in 
your city, 'go out in person, or telephone, and offer to BtiY ten-week-old 
ducklings of good weight. In raising ducklings, you would have an 
important advantage in getting your grain much cheaper. In Iowa, 
ducks can be raised for less than five cents a pound. 

Q. — The only thing I don't understand is about plowing up the 
yards in August. How do you manage this with the ducks? Are they 
inside the house when the yards are being plowed up, or out on the 
range? A. — Plowing in August, mentioned in the foregoing, refers to 
the breeding yards. The ducks are through laying, they have earned 
their money and should be disposed of, or put on the range, and the 
yards gotten ready for the coming fall, for the new breeders. 

Q. — Do duck houses need to face the south? A. — It is always advis- 
able, in this section of the country, to face the duck buildings either 
south or southeast. 

Q. — How are the roof ventilators made? A. — Make a box thirty 
inches long and ten inches wide, open at the bottom. Nail two boards 
on the top end, pitch, roof fashion, to keep out the rain. Saw a hole 
in the roof of the house just large enough to receive the ventilator. Nail 
it on and fit snug with roofing paper. 

Q. — When ducks are allowed to stay outdoors at night, is there no 
danger from skunks, weasels, etc.? A. — After ducks are six weeks old, 
there is no danger. 

Q. — Will rats kill the young ducklings? A. — Yes. No danger after 
they are six weeks old. 

Q. — Do you keep on hatching as long as the ducks lay? A. — Yes. 

Q. — Is there any special month that is better for hatching breeders? 
A. — Yes. April and May are the best months. 

Q. — If one wishes to keep breeding ducks over from, one year to the 
next, can the feathers be picked from the live birds and marketed? If 
so, how often should they be picked? A. — It is not advisable to pick the 
feathers from live breeders. It does not pay. The birds would receive 
a setback, making them less valuable as breeders the following season. 

Q. — When breeding stock have ample range, with green grass, in 
spring and summer, is it necessary to give either vegetables or clover, 
and might the meat be reduced? A. — It is not necessary to supply any 
vegetables when ducks have a green range. The meat ration should be 
kept up, however. 

Q. — Do you advise saving stock for breeders from yearlings, or 
two-year-olds? A.— There is not much difference in either case. The 
important pomt is to have the birds strong and vigorous. 

Q. — Do you allow visitors at your duck farm? A. — If they wish to 
come for business and not for sightseeing, appointments may be made 
by letter. (No visitors on Sundays or holidays.) Always write a week 
or more before you intend coming. Read page seven of this book with 
regard to correspondence, questions, etc. The railroad station nearest 
the farm is Pondville, on the New York, New Haven and Hartford Rail- 
road. The Weber farm is about one mile walk from the depot. 



OCi 2\ 



Index 



Age to kill breeders 35 

Ammonia 27 

Answers to questions 79-87 

B 

Barrels for shipping 65 

Bedding pointers 33 

Beef scraps 19 

Blindness 27 

Bread crumbs 19, 49 

Breeders, age to kill 35 

Breeders, feeding 31 

Breeders, price of 35 

Breeders, selecting 39 

Breeding 35.37 

Breeding pens 28, 29 

Breeding stock, care of 28 

Brooder house 25, 26, 55 

Brooders, care of 51 

Brooding house, heating 49 

Buildings 13. 25 

Buying eggs 22 

C 

Care of breeding stock 28 

Care of brooders 51 

Carrying ducks 39 

Catching ducks 39 

Cellar, incubator 25 

Charcoal 31 

Cleanliness 31, Si 

Cold house 56 

Cold weather 34 

Color of skin 6l 

Corn 31 

Corn-meal 19 

Cost of equipment 14 

Cost of feed 18. 19 

Cost of producing 18, 24 

Curing feathers 71 

D 

Division of labor 9 

Down, separating 73 

Drinking water 49 

Drying youngest ducklings.... 47 

Ducklings, cost of raising 18 

Ducklings, handling 25 

Ducklings, newly hatched 47 

Ducklings, picking 67 

Ducklings, profit on 14, 18 

Ducklings, shipping alive 69 

Duck-raising in North 25 

Duck-raising in South 25 

Ducks as fertilizers 17 

Ducks as gleaners 24 

Ducks, handling • . 39 

Ducks, kinds 23 

Ducks, markets for 35, 37 

Ducks, puddle 17 

Ducks, scalded 69 

Ducks, scarcity of good 78 

Ducks, shipping 20 

Ducks, wild 78 

Ducks without water 17. 23 



£ PAGE 

Egg record 15 

Egg, setting 21 

Egg tester 45 

Eggs 41 

Eggs, buying 22 

Eggs, flavor of 41 

Eggs, hatching 21, 47 

Eggs, infertile 21, 41, 45 

Eggs, in incubator 43 

Eggs, laid at night 41 

Eggs, laid in water 23 

Eggs, selling 24 

Eggs, sorting 43 

Eggs, starting with 20 

Eggs, testing 45, 47 

Eggs, turning 43 

Eggs, washing 41 

Employees 9 

Equipment, cost of 15 

Express charges 67 

Expressing ducks 20 

F 

Fattening 57 

Fattening sheds 57 

Feathers 18 

Feathers, curing 71 

Feathers, sale of 13 

Feathers, shipping 71 

Feathers, value of 71 

Feed 18 

Feed, first 49 

Feed measure 31 

Feeding at night 59 

Feeding before killing 70 

Feeding breeders 31 

Feeding ducklings 51 

Feeding hours 5i, 55 

Fencing 29 

Fertility, improving il 

Fertility record 15 

Finding a market 76 

First feed 49 

Flooded market 77 

Flour, low grade 19 

Food boards 29, 51 

Food, distributing 57 

Food mixer 13 

Food troughs 50 

French feeding 61 

Fresh air 27 

G 

Grass range 34 

Green food 19. 33 

Grit 19.55 

H 

Hatching eggs 17. 21 

Heating brooding hoiise. ...... 49 

History of Weber family 9 

Hot-water pipes 49 

Hot weather watering 53 

Hours for feeding 5^. 55 



Ice in shipping G5 

Ice pond 13 

Icing in summer 66 

Inbreeding 4° 

Income, net 14 

Increasing yield 40 

Incubator, cellar 25 

Incubator experience 10 

Incubators 13 

Incubators necessary 17 

Incubators to use 22 

Infertile eggs 21 

Investment of capital 14 

K 

Killing 59,62 



Labor charge 24 

Labor, how divided 9 

Lantern at night 34 

Layers 39 

Laying 34 

Location of farm 9 

Long shipments 67, 75 

M 

Male characteristics 35 

Manure 33 

Marketing age 17 

Marketing ducklings 15 

Markets 14. 35, 67, 12,, 74. 75 

Markets, finding 76 

Middlemen handle output 15 

Minor points 7 

Modern duck buildings 13 

Net income 14 

November eggs 21 

Nursery pens 26 



Oats, rolled 18 

Original stock 40 

Overfeeding 31, 53 

Oyster-shells 19 



Pairing 35, Z7 

Pekin ducks 22 

Pickers 63 

Picking ducklings 63, 67 

Picking room 64 

Plumping carcasses 65 

Plowing up yards. 29 

Poultry 9 

Power for food mixer 13 

Preparing ducklings for market 

64. 65 
Preparing eggs for incubator. 41-43 

Price of breeding ducks 35 

Prices 12, 

Prices paid for ducklings 15 

Prices, wholesale 24 

Profit in first ducklings 10 

Profit per duckling 14,18 

Proper feeding 59 

Proper weight 59 

Puddle ducks 17 

Pump 13 



Q PAGE 

Question box 79-87 

Questions 7 

B, 

Receipts from feathers 13 

Refrigerator tank 65 

Rich food mixture 59 

Rolled oats 13, 49 

Roofing 26 

Runs, plowing 29 

S 

Sale of feathers 13 

Sand 49 

Sawdust, dry 55 

Scalded ducks 69 

Scarcity of good ducks 78 

Selecting breeders 39 

Selling eggs 24 

Separating down "j-^ 

Setting eggs. 21 

Sex, determining 35, 37 

Sheds, fattening 57 

Shelter 25 

Shipments, long distance 67 

Shipping box, lining 66 

Shipping cases 65 

Shipphig eggs 20, 21 

Shipping feathers 71 

Shipping live ducklings 69 

Size, improving 11 

Size of drinking fountain 56 

Skin, color of 61 

Start in spring 21 

Start with eggs 20 

Stone piers 26 

Storms 57 

Swimming water... 17 

T 

Teaming 13, 17 

Tide water danger 24 

Tying up ducks 64 

V 

Vegetables 19, 33 

Ventilation 25 

Ventilators 27 

W 

Washing carcass 64 

Water, drinking 31, 49 

Water fountains 50, 51, 55 

Water in feed 19, 20 

Water in hot weather 53 

Water supply 13 

Water troughs 29, 50 

Weaning food 53 

Weber family history 9 

Weber strain 15, 17 

Weber's start in business 9 

Weber's success 7 

Weight 59 

Wholesale prices 24 

Wild ducks 78 

Windows 28 

Winter rye 62 

Wire netting 29 

Worms as food Z7> 

Y 

Yearling ducks 39 



LIBRARY OF CONGRESS 



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